My Search for You
by Kaikai PANTS
Summary: Yuffie is on the search for Aerith's beloved but what happens when HE turns out to be the ONE thing she is missing from her HEART?. cloud x yuffie ―CLOUFFIE. cY onesided clerith
1. Prologue

**- My Search for You -**

By

**_K_a**w_a_**i**_i_** _Ey_**e**z**

**Clouffie **

**Cloud x Yuffie **

Summary: Yuffie is searching for Aerith's missing beloved. But what happens, when he turns out to be the one thingsheis missing from her heart?

Dedicated to Felia and Mika for being awesome friends

Disclaimer: Don't own Kingdom Hearts.

-♥-**♥**-♥-

_the_** Prologue**

On one knee, I crouched on the intricately carved stone pillar, a soft wind running through my long raven locks flying behind me as I stared at the overpopulated beautiful city of Olympus beneath me. The back drop was a setting sun peaking out from the horizon casting red and pink streaks across the sky.

_A very dramatic background…_

Of course! I am the **_Great Ninja Yuffie Kisaragi!_** A great person always deserves a dramatic background! Nyuk nyuk nyuk!

I _jumped_ down from the great height on to the concrete ground. Ok, I didn't _jump _down from the pillar; I **_accidentally_** misplaced my foot and stumbled down. In simpler terms, I tripped and fell down. Are you happy now?

Anyways, I don't have time to complain about my butt hurting like crazy because I had a mission to do and complete! I had received directions that _he_ would be wandering around here in Olympus so I began jumping from roof to roof scouting for him.

I had to find **_him. _**

Why did I choose such a horrendous task, sailing across oceans, riding gummi ships over mountains, jumping through the several worlds trying to find him? Especially the riding the awful gummi ships that make me puke all the time! They were the worst!

I only did it for Aerith. She was always so caring, a mother-like figure that looked out for me when I was younger. I couldn't bear to look at her tear stained eyes, droplets rolling down her cheek. I felt like I had to do something to help her. _Aren't I so kind?_ The selfless stuff I do for people is quite impressive. What? You don't believe me!

Well, if you thought that then you're right. That stupid yet so sexy, Squall Leonhart had to suggest to me to go find 'Aerith's Beloved' after a fight when he was so fed up of seeing her crying. I could tell that he had a little soft spot for the pretty flower girl. He never thought I would take his suggestion seriously but I sure showed him. I made it my sole duty to find her beloved.

She kept waiting and waiting for him to come back for her _so-called-beloved_. _Ugh, so pathetic. _I don't even know why she claimed to love him so. If he truly loved her back, don't you think he would have at least written a letter or something to notify that he remembered her?

Since I swore to her, on my life that I would find him and bring him back, I would! Because I am a great ninja, my name being Yuffie Kisaragi, princess of Wutai. I would bring him back dead or alive. Though honestly I know I sound cruel, I don't mind him being dead. After all, he is a stranger to me. I don't even remember him at all. All I know is his name and his appearance.

I mean, I might have cared if he was dead a few years back. But I've changed over the past years, both mentally and physically. Especially when you think you have failed over those past 3 years, trying so hard just to find someone you don't even care about.

My raven hair had now grown longer and I had grown a huge liking for black, my tank top being black. But of course, I still had a thing for green. And I'm no longer afraid of death. I've gotten use to it, after so much of experience and wasting so many tears. I stopped, looking down at the dark alleyway with two figures talking quietly amongst each other. One was a bright blue, demonic figure wearing a black cloak. The weirdest part about him was that he had blue flames for hair. I could barely see the other guy with him that was hidden in the shadow. I chuckled to myself lightly as the blue creature's hair flamed red and disappeared within a flash. Then my eyes widened as the other figure revealed himself from the shadows. He started walking, very quickly. I even had difficulty following him.

Quick turn to the left.

Sharp turn to the right.

And then he disappeared within the crowd.

How could I lose him? After 3 years of searching, I had finally found him and now he just disappeared! I jumped down to the market place to get a better look. Suddenly, a man with a torn red cloak past me. His back was facing to me but I still could see his blonde spiky hair, and his bandaged wrapped sword. He was heading to a non-crowded area of the market place.

My goal was halfway done!

I had finally found **_him_**…

I had found **_Cloud Strife_**…

Now all I got to do…is find a way to bring him back…

-♥-**♥**-♥-

A/N- And it's done. Well, I'm thinking whether this should be a short chaptered fic or a long one. I dunno, tell me what you think. If you must flame, then try to do it in the nicest possible way.

Like it?

Hate it?

Suggestions?

Please Review-

_**x Kawaii Eyez x**_


	2. Chapter 1: stalking the chocobo

**–My Search for You –**

By **_Kawaii Eyez_**

_A/N- Thanks Felia for the b'day fict. By the way, it's MY B'DAY, (on the 2nd April)! -hint hint- _

_Same disclaimer applies._

_Currently Listening to- Gundam Seed: 'Pride'_

-x-**x**-x-

_Yuffie POV_

_Chapter _**One**

_1 pm. Olympus Market Place, Monday. _

_After 3 years, 4 months and 2 days of endless adventure, the ultra cool Materia Hunter from the mystical village of Wutai has finally found the long lost 'Chocobo'._

Yes I know, I have a very vivid imagination. So what? I just have an overly creative mind… and I sometimes tend to talk to myself...What do you expect from me when I've been travelling around the worlds ALONE for three long years?

I looked at the photo of him in my hand then compared it with the figure standing at the corner of the market place and a broad grin spread across my face.

O' thank Leviathan! Thank the heavens for bestowing this great moment of my life. This happens to be one of those superly awesome game screen shots where I, the Great Ninja Yuffie am posing after completing part of my quest.

Oh ye-ah! _Time for **Uber-hawt**-ninja-style victory dance_.

…

Ahem. Please, stop looking at me like I'm some sort of a circus freak. Can't you let a girl enjoy her moment of glory? It's not everyday that you find the guy you've been searching for three years. See he's just standing at the corner of the marketplace…

Erm…You don't see him? Are you blind?

No…?

You think that I'M THE ONE WHO IS _BLIND_? Excuse me! I'm a Ninja who's had tons of experience in this kind of stuff…I'm no ordinary ninja…I'm **_SUPER_** Ninja! Got that! So how can I be blind?

See, he's just over ther-…-_sweatdrop- ._

_Oh shit_. _No friggin' way!_

He **_was _**just right there, standing RIGHT THERE in that little corner! Where did he go? No this can't be happening to me! How could I lose him…again? Gawd, you're so stupid Yuffie! He was just right there for you to drag his ass back to Tranverse Town.

My head swung back and forth and I immediately spotted the 'chocobo' sitting on the rooftop of a building. It wasn't hard to find a guy with spiky blonde hair and carrying a massive gigantic sword.He was sitting on the stone rooftop, his red torn cape flowing with the wind. Seriously, he should get a new cape. It's like torn and raggy. Maybe he's poor and can't afford a new one. Or maybe I could buy him a new cape for his birthday.

YUFFIE! Stop thinking about good birthday gift ideas and CONCENTRATE ON YOUR MISSION!

I climbed up the stone building, to the rooftop where my target was sitting on. The blonde didn't even flinch at all. Did he not notice I was there?

I innocently leaned over to tap him on the shoulder but before I could he used his _scarily_ inhuman speed, and squeezed the life out of my hand. I seriously couldn't see that coming! He has god reflexes!

"OWWW!" I yelled my lungs off in pain and he finally let his death grip off my hand. I squirmed in pain and massaged my hand hoping to ease the pain. I scowled at him and he held his stone cold gaze like he didn't even care that he nearly killed my hand!

"Why'd you do that for you psychopath? I was just going to tap you on the shoulder to _try_ and be polite and acknowledge that I was here," I growled angrily massaging my hurt hand.

"I thought you were one of _them _hired to kill me," he replied in a cold voice. How could Aerith love a freaky guy like that? I think she must be high on some drugs or something.

"Well, I'm not here to kill you," I said, but judging by his face, I don't think he believed me.

"Really? I saw you following me at the marketplace."

"Correction! I was _following _you ever since your meeting in the alleyway with some creepy blue demonic looking guy," I snapped. "At least when you claim that someone's following you, you gotta get the details right!"

"…"

"Well…erm…just forget about the whole thing before. I'm the Great Ninja Yuffie! " I smiled and pulled out my nearly-killed-by-Cloud hand for him to shake it. Instead, the stupid jerk just ignored my very POLITE gesture and just stood up facing his back to me. How could he be so rude? NO ONE DISMISSES YUFFIE LIKE SOME FOOL!

Didn't his mother teach him any manners? I turned back to face him and saw that the stupid jerk was standing up, getting ready to leave! LEAVE? Do you believe the nerve of this guy? What does Aerith see in him? I can't see why she doesn't just get over him and hook up with Leon. Ugh! But I swore that I would bring his ass back, guess I will just have to. After all, an honourable ninja never breaks a promise.

"CLOUD you can't leave! I've been searching for you for THREE LONG years! I have to take you home with me!" I pouted and he immediately stopped.

Okay I admit, what I just said came out the wrong way. Seeing a '_stranger' _yell at you, claiming that she wants to take you home might creep some people out. But when I saw his face I swear I saw a slight tint of emotion in his face. Yes IT'S TRUE! Mr I-have-no-emotions-because-I-think-everyone-is-out-to-kill-me was scared of lil' innocent me. Well, I guess I can be a little scary because I am so powerful. Nyuk nyuk nyuk!

"You're stalking me…" he concluded interrupting my thoughts.

"Stalking? I wouldn't call it _Stalking…_"I said.

"…"

"Hey! I was _FOLLOWING, _not_ stalking _you. And it's for a good reason."

"Uh huh…"

"Me being the good Sumeritan, offered to go on a dangerous journey sailing across vast seas searching far and wide, flying across worlds of many different cultures, fighting evil-doers and saving the damsels in distress from the fiery pits of hell-"

"…You're rambling…"

"I was not!"

"…"

"Okay, just a little. Anyway, continuing with my story until someone _rudely _interrupted me. Where was I? I can't remember. Well I'll just sum things up. On behalf of Aerith, I volunteered to search for you and yeah, poof! Here I am!"

"…"

"Fine, I didn't _volunteer _to bring you backI got _manipulated _by stupid Squallie."

"…"

"Stop going _'…' _to me! It's frigging ANNOYING!" I scowled but I don't think he even cared. He seemed to be in his own world, being in deep thought. He sort of had the same look that I once saw on Cid when he was dreaming about his own fairy world with flowers and rainbows. Its just Cloud wasn't drooling nor was he smiling like a goofball mumbling random words about Tifa's boobs like Cid was.

"Who's Aerith?" Cloud asked interrupting my thoughts.

Oh my gawdness! I can't believe he just asked that! How could he not know who Aerith was?

"Are you JOKING? You don't know who Aerith is. She's like the girl who is madly in love with you and is crying her heart everyday thinking about you! She's the reason why I went on this stupid mission in the first place and you think you have the right to not remember her!"

"…"

"Well, I've been searching for ages for you so I don't even care if you _claim _forgot her! I'm bringing your ass down to Tranverse Town to reunite the two of you whether like it or not!" I said sternly, crossing my arms over my chest.

"I can't…"

"Can't what? Come with me? WHY BLOODY NOT?"

"I have unfinished business. I must go now," he said as he turned his back to me for the _second_ time and began walking away until I hook my arm around his.

"Did you not hear me? I'm bringing you back to Tranverse Town! NOW!" I ordered.

"I'm sorry you wasted three years searching for me," he flicked my hand off his arm. I stood in front of him, blocking his exit to the ladder off the roof.

" I've trapped you on this rooftop and you have no way out," I smirked proudly. Man, I sound like one of those bad guys. "You can't get past me unless you beat me up or miraculously grow wings and fly off." There was no way for him to go and I don't think he would jump off the roof. It was a very LONG way down! He could break his bones if he tried and I don't think anyone is stupid enough to do that. But I don't really know if Cloud would…he is blonde after all. But to my dismay, my indigo eyes widened as dark wings sprouted from his back. Before I could do anything, he was already flying off. I just stood there, dumbfounded my mouth urging to scream at him. But what could I say? No matter what I said, he would still ignore me and fly off.

"_Cheater_…" I scowled trying to think of positive thoughts and cheer me up. Hopefully I would find him again besides, he had to be somewhere around in Olympus. But Olympus was a huge, overpopulated city and there was a very slim chance of finding him again. At this moment, I felt like crying. My hopes rose to high peak, only to be crushed right down.

My knees grew weak as I plumped down on the cold rooftop, sitting in the shadows as I helplessly watched the figure fly off into the sunset…

-x-**x**-x-

_to be_ **_Cont_**

A/N- I wrote this when I was a little… _loopy_… So be nice.

Thanks to the great reviewers, you all deserve to get showered with cookies!

And btw, my Yuriku and other Clouffie's gonna be updated sometime these 2 weeks. And I'm writing another Yuriku (challenge) and Neji x Tenten (Naruto) soon. I'm on a major roll this month!

**Please review!**

Flames accepted…but be warned if you do, I might spam you and send my army of sporks to torture you. Muhuahuahuahua…_-smiles sweetly-_

_**x Kawaii Eyez x**_


	3. Chapter 2: shackled

**- My Search for You -**

By Kawaii Eyez

_Disclaimer- Square owns all. I own random characters like Chameleon._

_Currently listening to- DN Angel theme song: 'True Light'_

-x-**X**-x-

_**Yuffie** _POV

_Chapter _**Two**

I squirmed around, trying to free myself from the metal shackles around my hands. How did I end up with such a cruel fate?

Well…it all started when I was feeling extremely depressed after Cloud flew away from me and I went to a food store because I was hungry. You know, food can always make a person smile. Well, I kinda ran out of money…so I decided to _borrow _some food. YES! Borrow! I was gonna pay them back…eventually…heh…heh…Don't believe me? Fine, I stole it alright! Geez…

Then somehow miraculously, I got caught stealing. Yes! The Great Ninja Yuffie with such skills in pick pocketing got caught stealing! Was that even possible?

So after the fat old, shopkeeper yelled at me, I made a run for it. I won't get in trouble if the fat man can't get me!

Eventually more soldiers in these retarded white uniforms came after me. After a few minutes of running, the massive candle-looking guys surrounded me. I know, how **s t r a n g e**! If talking candles were yelling at you, you would run too! I didn't even know they were cops for god's sakes so it's not my fault. I thought they wanted to rape me! So I beat them up, all 30 of them.

And suddenly, out of the blue, this big blonde guy with his fancy smancy blade comes and picks a fight with me. Talk about RUDE! Then he handcuffs me and says I'm a criminal for bashing up his soldiers. I didn't even know they were soldiers in the first place. And so what if they yelled at me to stop as they were part of the force of Olympus. Would you believe some massive candle-looking freaks that they were cops? No! Exactly my point! So why the hell am I handcuffed?

"I, Seifer Almassy, commander of the army of Olympus sentence you to imprisonment for breaking laws section 99, subsection b, stealing is prohibited and section and section 5, maiming a soldier. But worse of all, you beat up 30 soldiers of our forces; a severe punishment shall be granted. Instead of getting sent to prison for 25 years of prison labour, I sentence you to a harsher one…" the man ordered as he hovered over me, pointing his very scary gunblade at me. I gulped, not liking what he was saying.

"Chuck her in with the other scumbags," he ordered, picking me up with one hand and literally throwing my small petite body at the other soldiers. How dare he? Seriously, I have never felt more pathetic in my life. I felt like a little rat facing an evil giant. Completely unfair…

The soldiers threw…

-correction, dumped me like a garbage bag, in the back of a truck and slammed the door shut.

So, here I am. In the back of a truck, with these creepy, stinky criminals next to me. The guard was a blonde woman with plaits, coloured beads looping around her eccentric hairstyle. She was rather different from the soldiers that patrolled around Olympus. She was quite a_ 'messy-looking' _womanwearinga yellow and red scarf hung around her neck and is showing a lot of skin.She looks bright, like the star on top of the Christmas tree. She stands out; her outfit is comprised mainly of yellows and reds, with some pinks and blue. Though that makes her look pretty weak; I could probably beat her up and steal the key to free me.

"Heya sweet cheeks," some fat ugly dude with a chameleon tattoo on his chest said to me.

"Call me sweet cheeks again, and I'll shove my shuriken up your ass," I snapped. The blonde female guard chuckled to herself.

"Ninja bitch! Do you know who you're talking to? I'm the famous Chameleon. I was sentenced to prison originally for 10 years but I'm such a bad ass that they sent me to the Colosseum." The fat man said.

"Dude, that's nothing! I got sentenced to prison for 15 years for killing 2 soldiers!" a guy with a eye patch boasted. (A/N- his name is Xigbar).

"What a poor little girl! Sentenced to get butchered in the Colosseum against the big boys like us!" Chameleon laughed, as his hand tried to caress my cheek. Then the blonde guard pointed her gun directly at his head.

"Hey save your anger for the tournament!" she yelled, as he backed away from me. She then faced me and looked at me with curiosity.

"Kisaragi, you aren't originally from the prison are you?" she asked and I nodded.

"Normally, most people get sentenced to jail first. What's your reason for getting sentenced to the colosseum?" the guard asked.

"Well…I got caught stealing…" I began and the other prisoners started cacking themselves. "…And I beat up 30 soldiers…" And that said, the once-scary looking inmates were speechless.

"Oh well…how long do I stay in this colosseum?" I asked.

"Until you win, die, or lose without dying which is highly unlikely. Most people prefer to win the tournament because you get fame and honour for doing such. And you get to challenge the heroic Hercules," she answered.

"Cool, beats prison," I smiled, leaning back against the truck wall.

"Prison is a much better punishment than the colosseum. Fights in the colosseum are like hell, demons versing savage monsters. Normally you'd be sent to the prison, but it's kinda full, so batches of jail inmates get sent to the colosseum to die for entertainment. I can't believe some people actually _volunteer _to participate in this sadistic slaughterhouse. It's quite brutal," she said.

"Ah…_just my luck…_" I said sarcastically.

"Poor you," she said patting my back. "And I normally don't feel sorry for the people sent to the violent colosseum. Maybe it's the fact that you're the only female participating."

"I'm Yuffie," I said stretching out my hand.

"Rikku,' she replied, giving a firm shake to my hand.

-x-**X**-x-

"This is where you'll be staying," Rikku said opening the door as I gasped.

The room was breathtaking. Crystal chandeliers hung on the high ceiling, royal rugs covered the marble floors, the bed was covered with elegant quilts and the room even came with a TV. But the thing that I kept thinking about was whether there would be room service? It was like a 5 star hotel room!

"This sure beats prison!" I flopped on the bed, my back facing the ground. "This is hell? My ass! It's more like heaven!"

"Well…usually the volunteers get these rooms, but the person who stayed here got eaten and ripped apart by a pack of lions," Rikku said and my eyes widened, my lips parted a bit. I was speechless.

After I settled in my room, the eccentric blonde girl then led me to the Training Room where I saw a lot of sweaty, strong fighters practicing.

"The rule is you can't kill any participants, unless it's on the battle field. I'll leave you to it then. Have fun!" Rikku waved and walked out of the room, leaving me to stare at the fierce fighters.

Crap…I felt extremely intimidated right now. And the Great Ninja Yuffie never gets intimidated easily.

BAM! I got shoved to the wall by some hot shot!

"Move it!" the man snapped, his back with black feathery wings facing me. He had black hair with whitish silvery streaks and wore white plate mail with gold trimming. I made sure I remembered him, so if I faced him, I would kill him!

My stormy eyes scanned the room for a piece of training equipment that wasn't being used. I was out of luck. There was none. Might as well, take a little tour around the colosseum!

My light brown knee high boots tapped against the marble floor, as I walked through the corridors. Then I immediately stopped when I saw something that amazed me. The man stood alone outside in the centre of the garden, positioning his massive sword firmly in his grasp. Within a few seconds, he released his power and did some ultra cool sword technique. It was like a whirl, as I barely could see his movements, or his sword spinning around. Then he stopped, his sword still in his hand, his body form into a crouch. The trees around him split in half and came down. I jumped a little at the surprise and he turned around to face me.

_Blonde spiky hair…red raggy cape…enormous sword…_

_Luck was on my side once again…_

Seriously, I think I surprised the shit out of Cloud Strife like he has never been surprised before, because he dropped his oversized sword on the ground when he saw me.

"CLOUD!" I yelled flinging my arms around the man that startled him once again. I sounded like I hadn't seen him in years even though the last time I saw him was earlier that day.

"Yuffie?" the spiky haired blonde stumbled. "I must commend you on finding me. I didn't think I'd see you again."

"Neither did I," I said letting go of him. "I erm…kinda _accidentally _stumbled here…"

"Well, I'm gonna go back to my room," he said picking up his weapon and heading towards a pathway. I trailed behind him and he stopped and turned around.

"What are you doing Yuffie?" he asked.

"Doing the same as you…going back to my room," I replied and he just nodded and continued to walk. We both then reached the dorm section as he headed for his room's door.

"What are you still doing here?"

"Erm…going to my room…it just so happens to be next door…" I smiled.

"What a coincidence…didn't think you were the type to volunteer for the Colosseum…"

"I didn't volunteer. AS IF I'd volunteer! No offence…I got the room next to you because the guy who lived in it before died."

"So…what ARE you doing here?" he asked, gripping the knob on his door.

"I'm a criminal…" I answered and an amused smile crept on his face! That's right! Mr Serious SMILED!

"Anywho…since I'm stuck here for however long, I have more time to convince you to come back to Tranverse Town to meet Aerith!"

"I don't even remember what she looks like…" he said, opening the door to his room.

"Here!" I said, handing a group photo of Cloud, Leon, Aerith and me when we first were all together. "A photo of Aerith. She's the one in pink obviously."

"No thanks…" he said as he shut the door in front of my face. OH MY GAWD! How rude! Oh' how I wanted to stick my shurikens in his face!

I looked briefly at the photo in my hand. I was five at the time so it was about 15 years ago I think.

A brunette teenager wearing a pink dress, smiled brightly as she held a bouquet of pink lilies in her hand. Beside her was a brunette teenager wearing black his face looking like ' . ' this as Aerith hugged him. And beside him was a blonde spiky haired boy who had a small smile on as he looked at Aerith. At the front was a raven-haired girl who looked the bubbliest and joyous of the three. She had the widest smile, and shiniest set of pearly white teeth.

But that was back in the days…when everything was happy and fairy tale like…

If only I could go back…when Aerith actually smiled genuinely…

I slipped the photo underneath Cloud's door and walked back to my room.

Behind the door, a spiky haired blonde raised his brow realizing the photo had been slipped underneath the door. He picked the photo up, his blue eyes gazing at the image…his memories flooding back to him…

To be **CONT**

-x-**X**-x-

_Okay…I think this will be a multi chaptered fict with short chapters. Yeah?_

_So what did you think of it? Like or hate?_

**Please Review **and I'll lend you a spork to poke your enemy with.

_**x K**a**w**aii** E**ye**z x**_


	4. Chapter 3: gladiator

_Disclaimer- Square owns all. I own random characters like Chameleon._

_My first attempt at a fight scene…cos I felt like writing one _

-------**x o x--------**

_Chapter _** Three**

**A**drenaline pumped through her veins as excite filled the ninja's mind. It was going to be her first battle in the Colosseum and she couldn't wait until it was her turn. Yuffie waited to fight at the backroom with the other criminals. The first round of battles would be against creatures, and the non-volunteers (criminals) would have to go through a qualifying round. The motto in the first round was kill or be killed. Simple as that.

"Yuffie stop jumping around, I know you're excited but you're going to tear my hand off," Rikku said pulling the ninja's hand away from hers.

"Sorry Rikku, I'm just so excited to get my hands all dirty and whoop some monster's butt!" Yuffie grinned. "And how long is that _Charmeleon _guy taking to defeat the monsters? He's taking ages!"

"Y'mean how long is it taking Charmeleon to die. Besides, you're a pipsqueak so don't get too excited to die kid. The colosseum is not a place fer little girls," Xigbar, the man with the eyepatch said.

"WHY YOU…" Yuffie shouted but got pushed back by Rikku. Then a blonde haired boy who works there walked to them.

"Roxas, I take it that Charmeleon lost? How was it?" Rikku asked turning to him.

" Charmeleon got slaughtered but he put up a good show," Roxas said calmly. " Next opponent!" Yuffie jumped up only to be smashed to the ground by a man with an eyepatch.

"Wait yer turn kid. I'm after Charmeleon 'member," Xigbar smirked bumping Yuffie out of the way. She scowled at him as she watched his back drift further and further away through the doors of the battlefield…

…And that was the last time she saw him…

-------**x o x--------**

**Yuffie** POV

"You're back so soon Roxas?" Rikku asked as the guard walked towards them. "Weren't you supposed to watch the battle?"

"The battle's already over within 3 minutes. Quite pathetic…" Roxas said as Yuffie gulped, nerves taking over her. Xigbar died within 3 minutes…oh my gawsh…

Three minutes…

That's like 180 seconds…

I saw him 180 seconds ago…and now he's gone…

And I'm going to go out there to that graveyard…

"Yuffie it's your turn but you'll have to wait a while. It got a little _messy _out there, and we're cleaning up the blood," Roxas smiled. "Don't worry, you'll get your chance to fight!"

On second thoughts…I didn't feel like fighting at all now…I know, the GREAT NINJA YUFFIE doesn't want to fight! What's happening? Since when I'm afraid of death? NEVER! So GET YOUR BUTT OUT THERE AND KILL…

-------**x o x--------**

The crowded roared loudly, cheers and chants filled the stadium. My grey eyes widened, enthralled by the colosseum's massive structure. My knee-high boots slowly stepped against the blood stained dirt walking to the centre of the battleground. I knew that Xigbar had once heard the yells of the audience; I knew that he once stood at this same spot…and hopefully I wouldn't share the same fate that he did…

I scanned the audience and spotted the other participants sitting down to the left next to where Hercules was situated. I squinted as I made out that Cloud was one of the people watching. Near him, was the black haired man with the white armour that bumped into me at the training ground. I was a small fighter, standing in the middle of the stage with thousands of people looking down at me chanting for me to either injure the monsters I was about to fight, or get completely decapitated by the monsters. Right now I looked weak, like a puppet in front of a stage.

_I feel manipulated…_

_By strings I couldn't control…_

I shook my fears and nerves away, as I stretched my arms and legs. I had to look strong especially since Roxas, Rikku and Cloud are watching. I don't want them to see me die. And I can't die! I still have my promise I made Aerith to fulfil.

Even though the audience was roaring, I could hear the angry grinding of sharp teeth behind the gates. My nerves rushed back to me, as I held my shuriken up. The gate opened and a pack of lions with large fangs charged at me as I easily dodged it.

You're a 'gladiator' now, sent to entertain the crowd. I might as well and give them a good show just in case I die. I charged towards the lions, my shurikens danced back and forth, a lion fell where I stood in front of it. I sent my shuriken to the lion as it entered through the bottom of the neck and exited through the back of the skull. I gave a victory sign and the audience roared again. My confidence built up as I looked over at Rikku and Roxas who was screaming their heads off in happiness. I turned to face Cloud who had that same look that he always had…like he didn't care at all…

Gradually more creatures were sent out, the difficulty level increased each time, but I, the Great Ninja Yuffie managed to defeat them all! A wide grin appeared on my face as I played the crowd like a finely turned instrument using finesse and style to impress. Oh yeah! Yuffie Kisaragi is on a roll!

"Okay…ladies and gentlemen. Yuffie Kisaragi, being the only female criminal that has made it thus far… but we have finally approached the last round which is said to be the hardest of them all…The last round contains a vicious monster that is feeling very hungry. This is the newly addition to the qualifying rounds so this will be the first appearance for them in the colosseum. Can she qualify and survive?" the announcer enthusiastically said making the crowd roar again.

Vicious monsters…?

My eyes flicked over to Rikku and Roxas who had a worried look on their face.

Shrieks of ghastly monsters came from behind the largest gates. The audience immediately froze and went dead silent. I could hear my heart pounding fast, as I wiped the sweat from my face. I felt like time was going slow as the gates slowly lifted up. My eyes trembled, locked into two bloodthirsty glowing eyes that lurked in the darkness behind the gates. It was only one person…correction, one monster…

…and since it was only one…

…that _thing _had to be powerful…

I took a long deep breath…

**BAM**

In a split second, I realized that my body flew up soaring through the dusty air, smashing into the brick wall…later all I could smell was my own blood…

-------**x o x--------**

_A/N- Where is the Clouffieness you ask? There's none in this chapter, sorry. This is kinda a follow up to the hints of Clouffieness in the next chapter. But I introduced Roxas in this chapter though XD._

_I just watched some crazy war anime called Berserk hence my mood-change for the sudden urge for fighting XD. _

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_**x K**a**w**aii** E**ye**z x**_


	5. Chapter 4: perseverance

**M**y **S**earch **f**or **Y**ou

_Disclaimer- Square owns all characters, except for Yue. He's my OC. _

_A/N- An update! Hoorah!_

_This chapter sort of focuses a bit on Cloud and introduces a bit more depth to Rikku (from FFX), since most of the chapters were Yuffie centric (cos Yuffie rawkes…just thought I'd make this chapter a little different). Well here it is…Enjoy! _

-------**x o x--------**

_Chapter _**Four**

**S**weat covered his hands as he dug his strong fingers into his palms, assisting him to maintain calm. The spiky blonde man stood inside her hospital room, leaning against the door, watching the materia hunter lying in her bed, covered in bandages. Beside her were two blonde soldiers, Roxas and Rikku, a sibling pair, both skilful in combat, a caring younger brother, a playful older sister, one being a tactician and the other a sneaky thief. The duo looked worried as they paced around the room, Rikku would occasionally twiddle with her fingers, play with her rainbow coloured scarf and mumble a song to herself to keep that smile on her face as if everything would be okay. She couldn't seem to keep still and in some form, would always keep herself occupied. The Al Bhed girl believed in hope as she sat on the chair next to the unconscious Yuffie, singing a song of recovery, hoping that the ninja could hear her melody. However her singing seemed to be annoying Cloud a little but he kept his normal stoic face.

Roxas swept his short blonde bangs away from his emerald eyes as he shifts his body to face the window, staring at the white puffs of cloud streaked across the sky, trying to pretend that Cloud wasn't there. Roxas felt slightly intimidated, even though he knew he shouldn't be, perhaps it was because Cloud carried an enormous behind his back. Roxas was a soldier of the Olympus army assigned to maintain order at the colosseum, though he couldn't help but feel nervous when he realised that a pair of blue orbs was glancing at his direction. Concealed in a red cloak, Cloud was observing the movements of the blonde siblings, as there wasn't anything better to do. It had been a few hours and Yuffie hadn't moved an inch.

His entrancing blue eyes returned to the raven-haired ninja covered by white sheets. Despite his calm, emotionless face, he was worried about her. Yes, the stoned, heartless Cloud Strife was worried!

_Why? He didn't know why himself…_

_When the monster was beating the crap out of the kunoichi, he didn't know why he clenched his hands around the hilt of his sword…_

_He didn't why he wanted to jump into the colosseum arena from the audience seating and save the ninja, even if he got himself disqualified from the tournament…_

_He didn't know why his blood boiled whenever he layed eyes on the giant…_

_He didn't know why he wanted to rip the monster that put Yuffie in the hospital bed apart to pieces and continuously plunge his sword into its heart…_

_He didn't know why he was waiting in her hospital room for her to wake up…_

_He didn't know why he was acting strangely and it was troubling him a lot. He hardly knew the girl, yet he felt emotionally linked to her…the fact that she knew a lot about him, and that he should have known stuff about her too but he doesn't…_

It was bugging him…_she _was bugging him…like an annoying fly that wouldn't disappear…

She made him feel guilty…yes, the Great Ninja Yuffie had made Cloud Strife feel emotions, an emotion he hadn't felt in a long time, and he hated it.

G u i l t…for why he left Aeris and the rest behind in Hollow Bastion without a trace and hadn't even contacted them at all to notify them that he still breathed.

Cloud wanted to punch himself inside. Why on earth did he care what happened to the raven-haired girl anyway? Just a few days ago, he didn't remember that she existed. She confused him…she made him think about other people…people that he thought he shut out of his mind forever…

Cloud turned his head back and took a last glimpse at the peaceful look on Yuffie's face before he headed out of the room to clear his mind.

-------**x o x--------**

**Rikku** POV

Blonde plaits twirled, turning to exchange glances with Roxas as the red cloaked man left the room. FINALLY! When he left the room, the tension vanished and the mood softened. He was kind of creepy, as I knew he was a strong competitor in the tournament. And what was Cloud Strife doing in Yuffie's hospital room anyway? It's not like they know each other…I never saw them talk much, in public anyways. Okay, I could picture the hyper Yuffie talking to him, but Cloud?

I mean, this is Cloud Strife…I heard he was like a stoner or something…I remember Roxie checking up on his background details only to find out there was none and it had been erased…like his life before entering the tournament never existed.

Yes…I know! Very creepy stuff!

My lips curved into a vivacious smile, as my swirls of emerald in my cat-like eyes looked at the worried look on my younger brother. Roxas was the same old Roxie…it was always up to me, his older sister to make him feel better. After all, taking up the role of the mother figure ever since out parents died was a difficult task. I mean, come on…can you picture me as a mother…? Didn't think so eh?

I guess I was use to smiling a lot, even though I wasn't feeling happy. If I could smile to make someone else feel better, then I would always smile…if that made any sense. But that was my little message that I kept repeated to myself in my mind.

"Chill a little Roxie," he glared at the name I gave him. "The Yuffstar is gonna be fine yeah? The healers have used 'cure' on her like a gazillion times!" I patted him on the back.

"I know she will be…it's just she hasn't woken up yet…" Roxas returned me a smile. "It's weird…I never thought I'd end up making friends with a criminal."

"Ey! Watch your mouth. She's not a criminal…just cos she stole something…I mean its taker's keepers right?" I gave him a grin as he just rolled his eyes. "Well, I believe she was just at the wrong place at the wrong time..." as I turned around to see a tall muscular man with short blonde hair.

"Soldiers…" the cold army voice rang through the air. Didn't he even care that there was a patient in the room? Of course, he didn't! What a stupid question of me to think of! Since when did Seifer Almassy care about other people? Sometimes I wanted to glomp him just to see his reaction. But I wouldn't dare…he'd probably try to fire me…or worse…murder me…

Roxas and I immediately straightened up and saluted him as he entered the room.

"Commander Almassy! Orders sir!" Roxas and I said in unison.

"Status of Kisaragi," he ordered. **What?** Did the Seifer Almassy want to know about the well being of a competitor of this tournament? Was I dreaming? Why on earth did he want to know how well Yuffie was doing? He was the one who put her here in the first place!

Roxas saw the stunned look on my face and began to speak, knowing that I was too shocked to speak. "After using several cure spells, it looks like Kisaragi's wounds would be healed by tomorrow. However, the patient has not regained conscious."

"So she'll be fine by tomorrow…?"

"Yes sir!" Roxas replied in his best military voice. It was actually quite funny hearing him in that tone, you would almost believe that he was a 'tough' guy.

"Good," Seifer mumbled to himself. **Okay!** Now I was hearing things! Seifer said that it was 'good' that Yuffie would be cured by tomorrow…If he wasn't the commander I would have knocked him on the head and asked if he was alright. Though I didn't as he cocked his brow at him wandering why I was staring at him as if he had three heads!

"Commander Almassy, if you don't mind me asking…" I began and Roxas immediately shot me a 'do-not-say-anything-stupid' look but I ignored it. Seifer turned to me and raised a brow. "…Why do you even care about Kisaragi's wellbeing anyway?"

"She'll be able to fight tomorrow," he answered. I knew it...Seifer having a heart? As if! "Only 2 criminals out of the whole 10 batches qualified. Kisaragi put on a good performance. The crowd seems to like her even though she nearly died out there. "

"Who was the other criminal that qualified?" I asked in a casual tone, but I soon realised this and added, "Sir!" I felt like I sounded a little too informal, which Seifer usually gets cranky at me for…though, I think he's use to my 'uniqueness' now.

"Yue, warrior with white armour and black wings. He made it out without breaking a sweat. Quite impressive for a mere criminal…" Seifer said. "Keep an eye on the two criminals…and that's an **order**"

"Yes sir!" Roxas and I said as we watched the commander walk out of the room. I turned back to see Yuffie stirring and I immediately gasped and began squealing. I couldn't help it okay… I could tell that Roxas behind me immediately brightened up when he saw Yuffie wake up.

"**Yuffie**! You're awake! I was sooooooo worried…especially cry baby Roxie over there," I teased, tugging on the ninja as Roxas shot me a glare.

"Er…hi Rikku, hey Roxas…what are you guys doing here?" Yuffie said, rubbing her eyelids. "Wait…what am I doing here? Am I in hospital?"

"Dontcha remember silly?" I laughed.

"My mind's a little…hazy. Care to fill me in?" Yuffie asked as my grin widened. I eagerly jumped up as I was always up for story telling! I always liked telling my life story to everyone but everyone seemed to fall asleep or told me to 'shut up' or worse…throw a brick at my face and threatened me to 'shut it' or die…

I know! How god damn rude…I was only trying to enlighten them about the great life of Rikku but they just shut me out! Now what was I going on about…ah yes…what happened to Yuffie during her fight…

-------**x o x--------**

_FLASHBACK_

_The brave girl's palms clutched her back, trying to ease the immense throbbing as she crouched on the dusty ground, blocking out the roaring of the crowd surrounding her. Small rocks crumbled from the wall and the area in the wall where she collided with, where a hole appeared. Yuffie shakily picked herself up leaning against her massive conformer as support. The ninja coughed, crimson blood spitting on the ground. _

_In the stands, Roxas had a worried face, though I crossed my fingers, having a serious look on my face. Yes yes, Rikku can have a serious look too y'know! I believed in Yuffie after all, I knew she was a talented ninja after all the 'boasting' that Yuffie had been continuously piling on about._

_Yuffie forced herself to look up, staring into a pair of glowing orbs that showed no mercy or compassion. Her eyes trembled as she stared up at her large opponent, that his shadow covered her completely. She gave her best confident smirk, wiping the blood away from her mouth as she compared her colossal opponent with her 'great' height of 5 foot 2. Being a materia hunter, she recognised the monster immediately. _

_From its stone grey skin as hard of rock, and its monstrous height…it had to be…_

_A Titan…_

_But how on earth did a being of that height even fit through the doors of the arena anyway? I thought sternly to myself, then remembered Yuffie telling me about her beloved summon materia. Yep, the titan must have been summoned by someone._

"_BRING IT ON BIG GUY!" Yuffie exclaimed as she began jumping up and down in excitement. Was this girl crazy or what? She was facing a GIGANTIC monster and she's still enthusiastic about it. She must be high on drugs or something…_

_Though you gotta admire the girl's courage, being thrilled about entering the tournament in the first place isn't something most people would celebrate about._

_The stone leg struck towards the fearless ninja, as she easily avoided it by leaping up. Using gravity and the momentum to her advantage, Yuffie dived her leg towards the giant, spinning around, how she managed to spin around with such flexibility and at such an angle is still a question to me…maybe I should learn how to be a ninja too…_

"_SUPER YUFFIE KICK!" she exclaimed as her knee high boots collided fiercely with the giant's stone hard skin. For a second, the titan's face flinched a little and the audience burst into cheers, believing that Yuffie had done it with one kick…though sadly, I was very wrong…_

_Yuffie's face immediately squirmed and burst into a loud, "OWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" She withdrew her leg, rubbing her leg with her hand to try to ease the pain. Note to self- do not try to physically try to kick, punch or hit a titan with stone hard skin. The audience quietened down, realising that they had been fooled by the ninja's confidence. _

"_That's cheating…cheapo titan…" she spat, folding her arms across her chest. Her eyes widened as she narrowly avoided another death stomp, that if it had been successful, the ninja would be a pile of dust and crushed bones. Several kicks from the giant connected with the ninja's fragile body as Yuffie sunk into the ground as if she was a corpse trying to dig her own grave. _

_I closed my hands together, praying that Yuffie would make it out alive, as the ninja forced herself to get up. _

_Yuffie had seemed to be thinking…something that was rare for the kunoichi. Her mind seemed to be wandering to a different place even though she was still in battle. Was that a safe thing to do…? I didn't think so…but Yuffie seemed to be full of surprises._

_A large stone palm scooped up the ninja, attempting to crush her with his fingers. The giant lifted the materia hunter up and closed his palm with his fingers. However, the swift warrior having a small stature, managed to slide through his fingers and land on his stone shoulders. The titan soon realised this and started twisting and turning at a fast speed, trying to shake the small ninja off him. _

"_WOAH…" she screamed uneasily, trying to balance herself on the stone giant. The kunoichi knew that she couldn't stay on the shoulder for a long time as the arm of the titan thrusted towards his shoulder trying to grab the girl off him. Yuffie leaped up, dodging the attack as she climbed up the stone giant's face, lodging herself behind his ear. This irritated the colossal giant enormously, as if a pest had infested him._

_The titan grabbed his ear where the ninja was currently situated and closed on it. Unexpecting his next move, she tightened her grip on the top of the ear. The stone ear made a loud crack as the stone ear was ripped off along with Yuffie. The stone titan chucked his ear towards the ground with immense fury. The ear crashed on the ground as the ninja tumbled off, rolling on the dusty ground. _

_Being the Great Ninja that she was, she quickly picked herself up, positioning herself into a defensive stance. A serious look replaced her playful face, as the ninja seemed to be thinking up a plan. But what plan could a mere ninja think of when versing a gigantic giant? _

_The giant was large…but very slow. Yuffie was small yet very agile. _

_For the next ten minutes, it was just the ninja dodging the titan's attacks and then she using her small sharp shurikens, aiming at the giant's leg with dead accuracy. The titan didn't seem to be affected by the small shurikens that were now lodged into his leg. It felt like a mere mosquito bite to him._

_It then struck me of what the ninja was trying to do…despite her looks, Yuffie was quite smart and sneaky. The larger the person, the more he will fall. _

_My lips formed into a wide smile as I commended the brave ninja. Just when it looks like she was losing, the ninja seemed to think of the best plans to get out of her state. _

"_Now ladies and gentlemen! It's time for the Great Ninja Yuffie to wrap this up!" Yuffie yelled as the crowd went wild in bursts of cheers as they seemed to be feeding off the ninja's excitement. _

_Yuffie Kisaragi spun on her heel, narrowly dodging the fatal blow of the giant's arm that he threw at her. Her arm reached out for her conformer behind her back, as she slid it out fitting the dangerous weapon neatly with her three fingers. The kunoichi jumped on the titan's arm using it as a trampoline, as she sprung up in the air. She stretched her arm far back, twirling around as if she was dancing…and the audience seemed to be enjoying her performance._

_With confidence and expertise, the Great Ninja Yuffie released her hold of the conformer as the deathly ninja star spun with vast velocity towards the leg of the giant where several shurikens were lodged. Being too slow, the titan was unable to dodge the Conformer which plunged into the stone hard skin of his leg. _

_I could barely hear my own voice cheering with the stone monster groaning in pain, unable to move as the loud chants that the audience was screaming out. _

"_YUFFIE KISARAGI qualifies into the tournament!" the announcer called out in the microphone, as the ninja stood in a victorious pose, with her head held up high and a huge grin covering her face. I sighed of relief seeing that Yuffie had everything under control. _

_Her stormy grey eyes widened as she realised the shadow looming over her was getting closer and closer. The ninja looked behind her as she saw that the titan was shaking trying to regain his balance but with his broken leg, it seemed that the monster was beginning to tumble down. _

"_TIMBER!" Yuffie yelled as she began running away from the titan that was falling down. She now broke into a hasty sprint, moving her legs as fast as she could, trying to avoid the fall of the titan. Who knows how much that stone titan weighted and she didn't want to find out…_

_The stone giant's body pummelled down into the ground, as a massive wind storm formed creating a fog of dust. Yuffie let out a sigh of relief, trying to recollect her breath as she managed to evade the collapse of the towering titan. _

"_Uh oh…" the materia hunter growled to herself as she looked up to see a massive stone arm directly above her going to pound down on her. The ninja instantly tried to steer clear of the cascading of the arm, dashing as far to the edge as possible. _

"_Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit…" she cursed consecutively as she realised the stone arm was about to hammer her but she was so also close to the wall where she knew if she was there, she would be safe. She closed her eyes praying that she had made it, but her hopes dried out, feeling the heavy weight of stone crush her bones in her leg. This made her lose her balance as her arms spun around like a helicopter, as her head rammed into the wall. _

_I jumped out of my seat as the dusty fog cleared away, revealing the unconscious ninja on the floor with red blood dripping from her forehead… _

_END OF FLASHBACK_

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**T**o** b**e** c**ontinued

A/N- Woah! What a long chapter…It's my first time writing Rikku POV, so sorry if it's a little OOC so you can tell the difference between Yuffie and Rikku. I also made Rikku and Roxas brothers and sisters.

I just had a quick scan through it so sorry if there are a lot of mistakes.

Much loves to those who reviewed!

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_**x K**a**w**aii** E**ye**z x**_


	6. Chapter 5: concern

**M**y **S**earch **f**or **Y**ou

_Disclaimer- same as before._

_**A/N**- Another way late update. Sorry once again. You can beat me up for it.  
_

-------**x o **x**--------**

_Chapter _**Five**

Yuffie couldn't help but watch and simply be mesmerised by the energetic swirling of the blonde girl in front of her. With a broad grin, the soldier Rikku dressed in her signature yellow revealing outfit was accompanying the 'criminal' to her room. With each step Rikku took, she seemed to move to a rhythm, her hips swaying to side to side, her braids of golden blonde hair tumbling with her constantly swinging of her head. How she could be so lively was a surprise to Yuffie. They were just walking for gawd's sakes, and Rikku could turn it into some type of 'dance.'

"Wow! I can't believe you're all better. Just yesterday you were wrapped in bandages!" Rikku twirled on one foot, then landing on both as she swung from left to right. "Well since you passed the qualifying round, you are officially not a criminal anymore and now you are a Gladiator."

A frown touched the ninja's face for a brief moment as Rikku reminded Yuffie of herself but a slightly younger version. Yuffie was slightly more mature, in terms of experience. The princess of Wutai had travelled through many worlds, enduring many up and downs.

There were many times when the supposedly 'brave' ninja wanted to give up. Those pair of tainted indigo eyes that the ninja had possessed had seen a lot of and horrifying and painful images.

She had watched kind, good people die in their attempt of justice only to prove that they had wasted their small insignificant life which did not solve anything. Those lives that were sacrificed did not create any happiness like those people had intended, they had only brought confusion and fear to the eyes of the young ninja. She had witnessed evil triumph over good, the strong dominate over the weak.

Yuffie did not want to waste her life like they had. Being in the hospital for many hours made her reflect about the decisions she made. She would not die despite several times when hope seemed out of reach. For she could not come back to Traverse Town without Cloud. She promised on her life to bring Cloud back to Aerith and if Yuffie did not fulfil her oath she would be forever engulfed in shame. Not to mention that Yuffie wouldn't be able to look at the pink-clad woman without feeling some sort of guilt or dishonour. With feelings like that, it could slowly eat you alive.

"Yuffie? Did I see a frown on your face?" The Al Bhed tilted her head, as she literally stuck her face into Yuffie's, displaying a look of concern. Leaning her green eyes closer to Yuffie, as if Rikku could read the ninja's thoughts just by looking at her.

"Huh? It's nothing. I was just thinking…that's all," Yuffie gave a placid smile.

"Well…" The blonde leaned her head to the other side, her eyebrow cocked as if she was thinking. "…I think… you should stop _thinking_ so much. Its making you worry a lot. Kay?"

A broader curve appeared on the ninja's lips, her indigo eyes sparkling with sincerity, showing her gratitude towards the Al Bhed. "_Worry_? What? The Great Ninja Yuffie has never heard of the word!"

For a while the two had stopped walking, both in fits of laughter and giggles.

"Oopsies!" Rikku placed her hands over her mouth. "I forgot that I gotta give grumpy ole' Seifer a report. Such a mood wrecker, eh?" The female soldier yelled a quick good bye, before twisting on one foot and sprinting away.

Yuffie Kisaragi chuckled to herself as she continued to walk down the corridor towards her room. Her hands dangled from her sides, the materia hunter walked past the rows of portraits of famous Grecian heroes all looking powerful and fearless lined the stone walls. She picked up the pace when she caught a glimpse of a red cape and a head of blonde spikes.

"Erm…Cloud?" she called out, trying to catch up to the warrior. To her surprise, the one winged warrior had stopped and turned around.

"What?" It wasn't the answer she wanted, but it would have to do. She was satisfied that he actually acknowledged her presence.

"Thanks," she averted his gaze; she couldn't bear to look into those entrancing yet strong sapphire eyes. It made her feel…_weak_, a little uneasy too.

"What for?"

"Rikku told me that you visited me while I was hospitalised." His powerful stare seemed to have faded for a second, his eyes filled with confusion.

"…" Cloud turned away from the materia hunter, and begun striding back to his room. At this moment, Yuffie's playful side decided to appear, sensing Cloud's discomfort.

"I didn't know that you cared for me Cloud," the Wutain ninja said out loud, watching Cloud freeze and twist his head towards her.

"I merely made sure you weren't dead," he protested. _Like he needed an excuse anyway. _

"Awe…how sweet…the emotionless Cloud Strife was concerned about my well being," she smirked, the young woman's cockiness shining ever so brightly.

"Well of course. You are the _Great Ninja Yuffie _or soyou proclaim," Cloud sarcastically retorted, causing Yuffie to be slightly taken aback.

The blonde warrior had a slightly triumphant look in his blue eyes as he returned to his room, leaving the raven haired girl by herself.

Yuffie merely blinked.

A couple of times in fact.

She stood dumbfounded, looking at the spot where she had last pictured Cloud in her mind.

"Oh my gawd, he just made a joke!" she announced out loud, causing several heads to turn and shoot looks of insanity towards her direction. She looked like a lunatic talking to herself, as by then no one was in a 20 metre radius of her and Cloud was already out of sight. A blissful smile graced her features at her awareness of what just happened.

_10 am. Olympus Coliseum- West Wing Bed Chambers Corridor. Thursday._

_The materia hunter is officially awesome- not that I wasn't already awesome- I'm just more awesome than before! Yep, the ultra cool ninja has made some progress considering the 3 years, 4 months and 2 days that I had wasted previously! It was finally all worthwhile!_

_During her 4 days from encountering the 'target', the heroine had witnessed Cloud making a joke. Definitely a date to remember… _

_Looks like things are running smoothly, with a few bumps in the way taken care of._

_All I have to do is win the tournament-which would be a piece of cake considering I am the super strong warrior of Wutai- the slayer of heartless. Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk! And then I bring Chocobo's ass back to Traverse town, and the 'Princess' Aerith will be finally reunited with her 'toad' and live happily ever after._

_-Yuffie _

**T**o** b**e** C**ontinued

-------**x o **x**--------**

**A/N**- I think I'm going to add a tiny bit of Rikku x Seifer. I love crack pairings.

Well I kinda forgot the original plot due to my lack of updating, so after hours of thinking, I thought up a new one! And to those who thought Aerith & Leon were gonna end up together… Dum di dum …think again! … (well unless I change my mind, of course.)

Hoorah to those who reviewed!

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**x**_ - **K**awaii** E**yez _


	7. Chapter 6: the fly & the lightbulb

**M**y **S**earch **f**or **Y**ou

_Disclaimer- same as before._

_**A/N**- Le gasp. An update! I've been staring at the computer screen for ages & finally, something came out._

-------**x o **x**--------**

Chapter **Six: The Fly & the Light bulb **

_**--Yuffie's Bed Chamber **_

"Oh riiiise and shiiiiine _sleepy head_!" a bubbly voice rang through the ninja's ears like an alarm clock was tossed at her face. Though the greeting was more like a loud annoying shriek, so it was more like the _alarm clock _had collided with her face and smashed to bits with her head being pummelled into her soft bed covers. Yuffie groaned; mumbling several undecipherable words and curses; her hand stretching out towards the bedside table in an attempt to smash the stupid _alarm clock _so she could continue sleeping. Later, she realised that she didn't even _own _an alarm clock and that it was in fact her lovely friend Rikku who had _rudely _woken her up.

_Bitch. _Yuffie swore she was going to get her fellow friend back for ruining her beauty sleep. Maybe the ninja could somehow get Rikku in to get stuck with her commander, Seifer. Maybe Yuffie could swap rooms with Seifer, so Rikku would wake up Seifer instead. _Heh_. Seifer would get so pissed and might murder her with his gunblade. _Eeep. _Maybe that was a little too harsh.

The blonde girl was a guard, so she had access to most of the rooms in the colosseum, whether they were locked or not. Though barging into any random competitor's room was like suicide. Waking up some psycho warrior would mean a sword through her head. Luckily, Rikku knew which room belonged to who.

Yuffie lifted her head up slightly to get a look at the intruder, only to see a brightly coloured outfit on a blonde bouncy girl. "Ugh!! Colour…so much colour…" Yuffie's hand covered her eyes, impairing her vision of Rikku.

Kicking the blanket off her, the female guard had shook Yuffie like she was a rag doll. The ninja slightly stirred but refused to get up. No way was Yuffie going to give in to her _alarm clock! _

_Yes. The Great Ninja, Yuffie vs Rikku, the soldier -slash- alarm clock. Who will win?_

Yuffie rolled around, her back facing towards the stone ceiling, her head comfortably snuggled in her pillow. **_Swoop! _**A feathered pillow slipped out from under the raven haired girl as her head collapsed to her bed.

**_Whack! _**The feathered pillow thudded on the back of Yuffie's head, as the materia decided to wake up and turn over. _O' the shame_.

_Yuffie had lost to the powerful persuasion of the 'alarm clock'. Tear. Pride shattering really. _

Rikku helped her ninja friend out of bed. Rikku lifted the raven-haired woman up, but as Rikku let go, Yuffie had plummeted back down on to her bed lazily. The materia hunter scowled, her head buried in her pillows, hiding the rays of sunlight from her sleep-deprived eyes. She was tired. Who could blame her?

"You have a fight today, you gotta get ready!" Rikku's hands were on Yuffie's shoulders as she gently rocked the ninja's tired body.

"_**Fight**_? What fight?" Yuffie's head shot up, staring blankly at the blonde girl in front of her. Rikku sighed, sitting on Yuffie's bed. Rikku knew that it was going to take a long time explaining things to her very tired ninja friend. Just yesterday, the coordinators had outlined all the details about the tournament to each of the remaining competitors.

"Do you even pay attention to what anyone tells you, _silly_?" Rikku asked, her legs crossed, back straight like a pole.

"Well _duh_! Course not! I thought we just rock up to a fight."

"Ai Yuffie... you get given a timetable and you have to check who and _when _you are fighting."

"Don't I get a break? I just fought yesterday…"

"This is a _**colosseum**_. You don't get pampered like royalty _silly_," Rikku giggled, her head swinging from side to side as her rainbow beads tumbled before her.

"Well…_who_ am I fighting?" The ninja asked, getting straight to the point.

Rikku rolled her eyes, then started laughing. She jumped off the bed, her blonde hair jumping in the air as she chucked a piece of paper on Yuffie's face. The ninja took the paper off her face, becoming aware that it wasn't just rubbish and it was the colosseum's roster.

"_Mr Y Kisaragi_! They put me as a mister?! How rude!" Yuffie grunted, her lips scrunching up.

"So…who are you versin'?"

"Rude…"

"I know you think they are rude…but who are you versin?"

"Rude…"

"Duh! I know they are rude. They are snot nosed snobs who love people killin' each other! I wanna know who-"

"His name is Rude! R-u-d-e!" Yuffie replied, shoving the roster in the blonde's face, pointing to his name.

"Oh…hehe…_stupid Rikku_!" Rikku laughed nervously, slapping herself on the forehead. Yuffie laughed, her face returning to the sheet in front of her as her mind drifts to who and when Cloud is competing.

"Let's go…" Yuffie said, dragging the blonde girl by her arm, as they headed out of her room. She began to sprint faster as the blonde was consumed in confusion.

"What? Just a minute ago you were half asleep…"

"Let's just go…" The ninja said in a more serious and uncharacteristically monotone, as Rikku decided not to push it any further. The two friends left her room and headed out with the blonde soon leaving to her regular soldier duties, slaving away under the command of Seifer.

-------**x o **x**--------**

_**-- Colosseum **_

She seemed breathless like she had just run a marathon five times and had tripped over several times. Seriously, Yuffie's hair was untamed and messy from having just woke up. Yet he was the one who had just finished his first fight in the colosseum battles and she was the one who had just woken up. _Wasn't he supposed to be all sweaty and tired? But she was instead._

The blonde looked surprised to see Yuffie wake up so _early_ just to see him. The materia hunter placed her hands on Cloud's shoulders to keep herself from dropping to the floor. She slowly looked up, and leveled her eyes directly into his gaze.

"How…was… it?" Her eyes sparkled with curiosity, as she spoke in between breaths.

"What do you think?" Cloud replied in a calm manner that was laced with confidence. He looked like that nothing had happened.

"You won? Oh my gawd! You won! Congrats!" The ninja yelled ecstatically, her eyes brightened as she chucked her arms around him. The blonde didn't move. He couldn't move. He was so confused to why she was so happy that he had just won.

_Why did she even care what happened to him anyway? It wasn't her fight. She didn't even give an effing shit about him…or did she? Didn't she only come here just to fulfil some stupid pathetic promise to Aerith, some girl that Cloud barely remembered? As if she would selflessly spend 3 years to find someone as lonely and screwed up like him…He was a loner, a cold warrior who lost his heart and emotions a long time ago…_

_He was everything she was not…He had lots of parts of his former self forcefully pushed out of him…yet sometimes…when he saw h e r…_

_He saw something…the slightest flicker in her eyes…_

_Behind the little disguise she put on…_

_Something in her was **missing**…_

It was barely noticeable, but he managed to pinpoint it like she was a map and he was the best navigator in the world.

His blue eyes looked down at the raven-haired girl, who was hugging him. Her actions…they didn't make sense. They were spontaneous…no logic at all. Yet it intrigued him.

_Like a fly to a light bulb. _

He grunted to himself in disbelief that he had just compared himself…Cloud Strife, the great sword wielder, to a pathetic insignificant fly. And wait…did he just think that she was a light bulb. A light bulb, an object with a switch charged by an electrical current that gives out heat energy. It can be turned off and on at will by the flick of a finger. Without electricity, the bulb has no light. _What was her electricity that kept her smiling? What fuelled her light?_

"Yuffie…" he murmured, wandering why she was still on him. Upon realisation that she was still hugging him, she immediately retracted, blushing lightly.

"Sorry…I just…" The ninja averted Cloud's gaze. It was filled with curiosity and confusion, he didn't understand her…she didn't let anyone understand what was going on her mind. She was the Great Ninja Yuffie. _Expect the unexpected._ Ninjas were unreadable. She too was unreadable.

"Why are you…? Cloud asked, unconsciously. He usually was reserved and didn't let the questions in his mind slip out…but he did.

"I…don't know…" Yuffie murmured, her mind seeming to be in a distant place. She soon realised that Cloud was looking at her weirdly, like she was on drugs. The ninja was usually happy, confident and certain. The raven-haired girl then painted a broad grin on her face, concealing her own confusion. "Duh! If you lose now…I won't be able to kick you butt! Nyuk nyuk nyuk!" She laughed, not wanting to show her concern.

Though she didn't expect him to react. Cloud had frowned. No, not the usual frown he had. He had somewhat of a disappointed look on his face.

_What did you expect? For someone who views you as a stranger to even CARE? Does anyone care…the light bulb doesn't care about the fly. It doesn't care if the insect gets blind by its radiant blazing light, as the little insects' eyes dilate. No one cares about the fly. The fly is just some pest, an unwanted insect that gets drawn in by the light bulb, waiting for someone to squash it, flatten its insides into dust. _

"Aren't you gonna wish **me** good luck for my fight?" Yuffie pouted.

"…"

"You're right. I don't need luck! Cos' I'm a skilled fighter!" She gave him a light wink. "…Just like you." She added without thinking, before she covered her mouth with her hand, upon realisation that she had just admitted that Cloud was a good fighter. A tiny line on his lips curved into a smirk.

_Flies can fly. Literally. It was mobile; it was free as it spread its wings, feeling the air rush past. Behind those laughs, cheeky grins and the weird confident poses she does, Yuffie is missing something… and so is Cloud. Maybe that's why he can see through her like she was wearing a transparent shield around her. Similar to glass to a light bulb. It was strong but the higher it was, the easier the glass would break. It would shatter into bits and reveal little bits of filaments and wire. _

_Maybe that is why he is drawn to her. Like a fly to a light bulb._

-------**x o **x**--------**

**A/N**- Yes, Cloud is a fly. Totally weird and random…Sounded more like a short drabble, but meh. I updated :P so there! This chapter lacks happiness. . I need my happy mood to return to me. It disappeared. I'll just call this chapter _'character development'_.

Feedback is bravo & loved!

Like it? Hate it? If you do, state a reason-so I can improve. Suggestions?

**Please Review **

x. **K**awaii** E**yez


	8. Chapter 7: revenge

_Disclaimer- same as before. 2 updates in a day! _

kawaii eyez  
presents:

**my search for you**

-------**x o **x**--------**

_There is something about YOU  
__That brings a smile to my face…_

-------**x o **x**--------**

Chapter seven: **_Revenge_**

**enter: **Cloud's mind -aKa- _flashback_

_**Step…Step…Step…**_

Black boots pressed against the wooden floorboards slowly and cautiously like a predator cornering its helpless prey. Stubbornly, the little Cloud fought against his mother's will and grasped on her dress so tightly, that his nails had ripped through the soft cotton material. His blonde hair dug into his mother in a frantic embrace before she fiercely pushed him away, roughly into the trapdoor beneath her. The blonde woman then closed it shut as the shadowy figure came around from the corner.

His heartbeat increased, beating at a faster pace when he heard the killer's footsteps grow louder and louder.

Desperately, he tried to force the trapdoor open but his mother's weight was too heavy for him to push through. Cloud knew there was nothing to do, but watch the terrible event that was yet to come. Shivering, he pushed his face against the wooden planks of the floor, trying to see through the gaps. The young blonde boy could view the thin long sword were drawn; the masamune's silvery gleam sparkling in the moonlight.

His mother screamed, begged, pleaded to the man in front of her, a man that their family had once trusted with their life. What had happened to him? What had changed him into such a maniac?

A being with one wing, his long silver hair dancing in the wind and the cold aquamarine glare that had no soul lurking beneath his exterior. With skin as sickenly pale as snow, the killer was like a walking soulless human- heck, due to his cruel mind, most would call him a monster. How could a thing that possessed no heart manage to circulate the cold liquid around his pale body? How could someone so heartless exist?

The sound of flesh ripping as her scream broke off into the deadly silence of the night, her body falling off the trapdoor where Cloud was hidden underneath. Cloud couldn't move; he was frozen, and his feet were numb as the insides of his stomach began to twist uncomfortably. The young boy trembled, powerless to stop the villain. The crimson liquid had seeped out from her corpse, leaking through the wooden planks, where he was cowering away. His small fingers touched the warm fresh blood as he forced the tears from falling, as the aqua liquid welled up in his eyes.

Immediately, the young Cloud lifted up the trapdoor, looking at his mother's lifeless body surrounded by a quilt of crimson. He shivered, his eyes glancing through the window when the shadowy figure was right outside the house. That one thin chunk of wood was the shield between boy and the crazy murderer.

That murder was Sephiroth…

A monster that he wanted to kill…

A monster that he swore he WILL kill.

-------**x o **x**--------**

_**&& **He drifts back into consciousness…_

His room was quite dark.

This was quite unusual considering that it was still morning and no white mist filtered in the endless sky hawked by birds and other flying creatures alike. But for some twisted reason, Cloud Strife liked the dark. It made him feel at ease, like a shadow walking in the night. _Unnoticeable_.

Yet carrying a ginormous sword around his back didn't help. It was like having a giant sign saying: I'm here! The few rays of light that managed to squirm its way past the curtains was sufficient enough for his ocean blue eyes with the hint of green to see clearly in his bedroom. Maybe the mako that made his orbs somewhat like a torch was the reason for this.

After a cold shower to clean himself from just having a battle in the colosseum, he made his way to his bed that was covered by sheets of indigo silk. (The building liked to treat its guests quite well to encourage more competitors). His bedroom would remain exactly the same, and he would always do nearly the same thing as he returned to his room. Like daily routine, the blonde would rewrap his sword with the cloth bandages as he sat on his bed.

But his room was slightly different in comparison to the other days. Instead of finishing the last row of bandages to his sword, Cloud had stopped, as his entrancing ocean eyes glanced at the _foreign_ object to his room.

He kept staring at _it_. 'It' being the photo that Yuffie had slipped under his door when he refused to look at it. But now, the photo of Aerith, Leon, Yuffie and him was lying on the bedside table, next to the golden hue lamp.

Very vaguely, he remembered the pink clad girl as visions of her smile entered his mind. The aroma of freshly baked cookie engulfed his smell, as he recalled the 7-year-old Aerith offering him her treats. The brunette boy in the photo would spar with the mini Cloud near the waterfall, as their wooden swords collided with another. The sound of rustling water cascading against the cement; an arrogant smug look on the young Squall's face when he got a blow on Cloud.

Slowly, he focused his gaze on the 5-year-old girl in the front, showing her wide grin and her raven strands slightly ruffled up. Seeing the photo triggered a memory within him, as he remembered something…

**Something about _her…_**

-------

_Her tongue unconsciously flipped up, as the little raven-haired girl sat on the high stool; she needed a tall one since she was too short to sit comfortably on the table. The young version of Yuffie was colouring something on her scrapbook; the box of colourful crayons littered the table she was drawing on. Being a curious young boy at the time, the 9-year-old Cloud peered over the younger girl's shoulder, eying what she was drawing._

_On the rough paper surface, a sketch of four stick figures was drawn on it. With a smile that extended out of her face, there was a stick figure of a girl wearing pink. Beside the drawing of that girl, was a picture of a brown haired boy with his clothes messily coloured in with black and a grey lion necklace scribbled around his neck. Yuffie didn't have the colour silver, so the grey crayon was the closest alternative. The young Cloud's eyebrows furrowed when he saw the figure of a boy having yellow chunks sticking out of his head. Clearly, he didn't like the drawing that Yuffie depicted of him. _

_The blonde boy looked like a big chocobo, minus the orange beak and tail. Cloud didn't think that he looked like some bird, sure birds and humans both had two legs but he didn't have any feathers or a tail sticking out of his ass. He also found it ironic at the time, when she drew a stick figure of herself to be the tallest out of the four. The black haired stick figure towered over the rest, her smile was in the shape of a slice of watermelon. _

_"We are your family?" Cloud blatantly pointed out, his eyes reading the words 'm-y f-a-m-a-l-i-e' scribbled in pencil underneath the picture she drew. Yuffie couldn't spell well. She was only 5._

_"Uh huh." The girl replied, finishing her drawing by signing her name at the bottom, as she wrote 'Yuffie' incorrectly with a backward 'e'. She gave a broad smile, her legs dangling with glee as she nodded at her achievement._

_"Where's the picture of your mom and dad?"_

_"I don't have a mommy and daddy."_

_Cloud paused slightly, wandering if her parents were just like his...that they were both dead. "…Are they in heaven?" _

_The raven-haired girl stopped, her big eyes seeming to fade slightly as her head lowered slightly. "…I don't know."_

_"How can you not know?" the little blonde boy had given Yuffie the weirdest look, like she had five heads. The two never really got along, probably because of the age difference. She thought he was mean and he thought she was annoyingly strange. Her head looked up at the blonde boy with a thin smile splashed on her face._

_"Because…theydon't** e x i s t**..."_

-------**x o **x**--------**

Something about _her… _made him walk all the way down the set of stairs from the West Side bed chambers where he had rested and across the set of corridors. The blonde would constantly ignore the stares he received from the Grecian statues carved into statues and the portraits of heroes and generals that lined the stone walls. They weren't even real for gawd's sake, yet Cloud felt like they were judging him with each uneasy step he took.

Those non-living statues didn't care that he stood 6 feet tall and held a massive sword behind his back. They didn't notice that he held cold blue eyes, a set of spiky blonde hair, one demon wing and was a strong swordsman. Those slabs of stone and splashes of colour paint could felt like they pierced through him, knowing that his motives were wrong.

Passing the statue of Achilles, the great hero stood tall holding his sword up high as courage and pride held on its golden shoulder pads. Cloud felt like Achilles was glaring at the blonde_. So what?_ He was working for the god of the Underworld. It was _pathetic; _relying on the self centred Hades, his only source of information. The blue haired god was the only way, the only way that he could find the person he was looking for.

The person he loathed. The villain he wanted to slay…

To _monster _he wanted to plunge his buster sword through like that person had done to so many others…Sephiroth. That was the name that brought shivers down his spine and this was Cloud. A fierce brave warrior that usually feared _no one. _

"Cloud?" The raven-haired girl's voice broke through his mind, shattering his thoughts of his enemy into pieces. The ninja was putting on her armour, getting ready for her battle soon to be. She stopped, when she saw the blonde swordsman come in from behind her. It seemed that he wanted to talk to her.

Behind his red cloak, Cloud seemed hesitant, lowering his gaze to the ground. _Strange. He usually avoided her, yet he was the one who came to her. _Yuffie raised her brow; he had merely acknowledged her with a nod but hadn't spoken a word. "So…I'm fighting soon in the colosseum. Did you come here to cheer me on or are you just gonna remain silent?" Cloud's mind began thinking again. It was odd. He read on the timetable that Yuffie's fight was much later in the day. He assumed that he must have misread the schedule.

"Helllllo? Earth to chocobo head! Did you come all the way from your brooding room just to stare at me and say nothing? Oh…you must have! Wow! You must think I'm HOT!" An irritated frown appeared on Cloud's lips. "But wait…What would Aerith think? _Bad Cloud_!"

At the sound of the flower girl's name, his hand dug around in his pocket. Picking up the photo, his hand hastily handed it to Yuffie in one swift movement. "Here…it's yours…" He mumbled softly, turning around to head out of the room. Her mind slowly caught on to what was happening, as she glanced at the photo. It appeared that he had looked at it.

"Cloud…wait." She called, running up to him. Her hand reached out to grab his but he instinctively pulled away before she could. The red cloak fluttered in the air, as he turned around; his deep blue eyes burning into her. "Aren't you going to even ask about _her_?"

"I don't **want**to know?"

"Don't you even care?"

"No…"

"Ugh! You are so **stubborn**!"

"…" She knew that Cloud's silence meant '_you can't talk. You are stubborn too.'_

"Screw it. I'm not gonna bother and be love counsellor. You and Aerith can sort things out when we get outta here and back to Tranverse Town." Her voice grew louder and angrier each syllable she screamed out, her face flushing red.

"Tranverse Town is not where I shall be going…"

"But what about Aerith? She's a good person… kind too!"

"I know…."

"But…Oh my gawsh! You know? Does that mean…you remember her?" She asked, happiness returning to her voice. He was regretting opening his mouth; sometimes it was better to say nothing.

"…Barely."

"**Good**…That's a start!"

"That doesn't mean I'll go back."

"I don't care! I've been searching for you for **ages** y'know?"

"And I'm looking for someone too." Cloud slipped out, as Yuffie's jaw dropped, unsure what to say next. She had never thought of what he wanted to do…only what she selfishly wanted.

Her voice softened into a somewhat gentle tone that Cloud didn't think was possible. "Is that why you… volunteered for the tournament?"

"Maybe." Yuffie's gaze lowered to the ground, her knee-high boot moving in an outward circle. Her eyes narrowed in deep thought she wasn't the type to take no for an answer. There had to be a way, a way to convince Cloud to return home with her. A light bulb popped into her mind as her hands clutched her hips proudly.

"I have a proposition. If you don't want to listen, I would constantly pester you until you go _crazy_. And trust me, I can do that to people. It's a trait that I'm proud of." She gave him a wink.

He didn't like the sound of it, but it couldn't hurt to hear what the girl had to say. "Go on…"

"We fight against each other in the colosseum. If I win, you have to come back with me to Tranverse Town. It doesn't matter if you don't feel a thing for her…as long as she sees what you've _become_, then its fine with me. She can either fall in love with you or get over you. I don't care. Whereas if **you** win, I'll leave you alone…**forever**. We can even pretend we didn't even meet. Whatever you want."

Her words were laced with so much venom, that it felt like the acid had stung him, and his heart was burning with anguish. He didn't know what to respond with. "…" The look on his face told her that he didn't like the idea, but then again, he always had the same emotionless look, so it was hard to read. Yuffie was desperate for him to accept and would do anything to fulfil her promise.

" If you're afraid to hurt me just cos I'm a girl, don't be. I don't care if it's to the death. It's fine with me. Either way, we'll both be happy. If you kill me, I'll be gone from your life. Besides, if I don't accomplish my promise, I might as well die. If I kill you, I'd just bring your corpse back to Aerith. That way, there's a slight chance she'll believe you loved her, as you can't deny it since you're dead. Win-win situation _neh_?"

Yuffie was only nice to him, because she _wanted_ something from him. It was the way of life. If you don't need anything from someone, you'd leave them alone. Using him, toying with him, trying to break the shell that he created around him…how _manipulative_ If you saw someone dying on the street, you'd just walk past them like they were nothing. It was the way of life, as harsh as it may be. Every man for himself. The world was crumbling and she was falling with it.

"Fine, I **accept**." Cloud replied in a casual tone, his voice slightly bitter as his red cape fluttered in the air whimsically when he walked away with such animosity with each step. It was unlikely that she would beat him anyway, after watching her current skills in the battlefield. It would be for the best anyway. It looked like she didn't care whether he was alive or not. He might as well defeat her, and let her wander off to play her mind games on Leon.

Cloud and Yuffie would go their separate ways. He could get revenge and slay Sephiroth, and she could go back to Tranverse Town with the others. But did he really want her to leave…?

**To leave _him_? **

Shaking his head, the blonde spikes ruffled in the air, as he brushed the thought aside. Cloud wasn't going to let his goal be stripped away from him. Vengeance, it was what drove him to come to the colosseum in the first place. All would be wasted if he returned back to Aerith. For his dead parents…he couldn't let Sephiroth roam around alive… Staring at his sword in his hands, Cloud imagined the silver haired man's body in the blade's reflection.

He pictured what it would be like when the blonde warrior killed the silver haired monster…for he would do **_anything_ **to achieve his goal.

He did it all…He did it all for…  
**R e v e n g e**

-------**x o **x**--------**

**A/N**- Yes, Cloud centric chapter. The chapter is longer than my previous ones. I wrote this on Christmas Eve. Completely forgot about it until Felia reminded me. For those readers of my other clouffie/ squiffie: Emotions of the Heart, it's …er…halfway done. -_Laughs nervously-._

Well the 7th chapter of My Search for you is done! I only gave a quick glance, sorry if there are errors.

Love to those who reviewed!

Feedback is appreciated.

x---kaikai / kaidorei / caroline


	9. Chapter 8: family

**My Search for You**

by kaikai pants [formerly kawaii eyez

Disclaimer- same as before. I only own Yue, an OC. Don't worry, its not a mary/gary sue.

**A/N**- Where's the fluff? There are major hints in this chapter. Another long update? Yes, indeed. I apologise, I can't seem to get back into my fanfiction '_zone'_.

-------**x o **x**--------**

the bond that ties us together

Chapter eight: _**Family**_

_Deep breaths reverberated in the cold mist; his amygdaloidal eyes squinting sedulously to see past the nightly fog; a fog so thick caking the air and impairing his vision into dapples of blurred silhouettes. His heart pounded loudly in his ears, feeling his fatigue slowly draining out of him with each feeble step, his feet forced across the cold tiles of the palace. _

_Yet here he was still struggling strong, a sleeping girl radiating innocence wrapped in a white soft blanket like ducklings' feathers, in his trembling hands. He was carrying her, like a big brother should despite the beads of sweat condensing on his face._

_Evil was approaching. Those grotesque shadow-like figures with no heart, their sole purpose to ruin lives and all the things their malevolent finger projectiles touch. No inner muscle beating to state that they were alive. But he was too young. Too naive to pick up a weapon and defend his kingdom. He was only taught to run. To escape and __never__ look back. _

_Pathetic. But he was only 10 at the time. No one could blame the poor child. He had someone to protect and he held her dearly in his arms as he mentally beat himself up to leave his home behind to the infestation of those hideous beasts. Those ominously evil creatures that he despised to death that when he thought about them, his fist would clench and his blood would boil into a virulent loathe._

_In contrast, she was so pure…not knowing of the havoc and tragedy that was yet to come to her hometown and her family. _

_And she did not and will not even remember her family…_

_Nor about her older brother who had struggled so hard to save her…_

_Nor any traces of her once prestigious hometown…_

_Because it was wiped off, like it never existed by the corruption of the heartless. Consumed by darkness, transforming it into nothing but a forgotten paradise. _

_A place where people once called home but now will no longer._

_It didn't exist…but __she__ had existed. _

_She had escaped. She was alive.  
__He__ was alive. _

_Yet when he ran out of Wutai, he had let go off her hand, as she slipped into a different realm, tumbling into a magical torrent, the strong winds biting in her ivory flesh.  
__They had separated, and his existence was forgotten._

_Who is __he?_

_Well only time will reveal all the answers, as it does the same effect to mend a broken heart. But once you have lost your heart, the longing ticks of a second hand on a clock can not mend it, as it moves in a systematic method. So those who said once you've lost your home, your family, you have lost your heart. Is that true? In that case- it had happened to __him._

_He thought he had lost everything he ever cared about when that devastating incident shattered his blissful life. Whereas she had completely forgotten about her family assuming that they didn't even exist. Nevertheless, some things that are lost can be found again._

_Just like she to him or he to her. _

…Who knew that **they** would reunite again?

-------**x o **x**--------**

_**Yuffie**__ POV_

**--**_**Colosseum **_

Breathe in…Breathe out.  
Inhale & exhale. It was the basic process of respiring but somehow my breath was growing heavy with raging conflagration in my lungs.

Calm thoughts Yuffie. Bloody _Calm thoughts!  
_Do not kill the person next to you. That would be manslaughter. Murdering is considered a crime. You do not want to be a bigger criminal than you already are, even though technically you aren't a big criminal. You only stole a little thing and then due to it, you beat up a lot of soldiers as they were chasing you. No big deal. Anyways Yuffie. FOCUS. Good Yuffie, you're focusing. Now, use that wonderful broad brain of yours to clear your head and come up with a possible solution. Analyse. You need to think things through. Those neurotransmitters in your nervous system are there for a reason.

Tell me, what is wrong with this picture?

I, the Great Yuffie Kisaragi who needs no introductions (I am that fcuking great) am wearing my newly polished armour (that I polished myself. I have to look good for the public y'know. It's all about style these days). And I know what you're all thinking! I'm not a complete narcissist; I could use a few curves here and there- but that don't stop those perverted males off me. Nyuk nyuk nyuk

Yes, I'm wonderful; I don't need to meticulously detail my credentials, as this isn't a resume. Anyway, I meticulously trained for today…But I'm sitting in the stands of the colosseum next to some random fat guy –who, by the way has man-boobs that are bigger than mine. I am jealous yet freaked out at the same time.

Returning back to the scene…the big-boned guy (yes, I decided not to be vain by judging a person based on their looks) eating popcorn, which looks incredibly enticing with its caramel coating so that is why I pinched some off him while he wasn't looking. Ninja skills do come in handy- no doubt about that. I accept ninja disciples and give discounts to those who desire my mastery early. Well asides from the fact that I am eating some stranger's popcorn; the problem is that I am sitting on the concrete stands, feeling the gentle breeze brush through my raven hair producing a rather tranquil ambience.

Tranquil means peaceful. I am a rather capricious person- tranquillity isn't in my nature.

I am watching the guy wearing white armour fight Rude at the battlefield. With his scythe like weapon, the mysterious guy is beating the shit out of the bald guy -Rude- in the black and white suit. The black haired warrior is pummelling the Rude, kicking him into the dusty ground with his metal boots.

My eyes remain open, seeing the blade cut through Rude, like a spoon through jelly (which makes me crave for some jelly instead of some popcorn). Then I stop drooling over jelly when I imagine the obese male next to be as a pile of yummy jelly. The abhorrent image of that made my appetite crumble so my stormy grey eyes return to the stadium.

The blood flies out, the bones snap, the muscles rip.  
The audience claps and cheers, high on the intense action. A sadistic bunch we have here.

Great show I have to admit…but in case you haven't noticed…

**I**** am the one who is supposed to be out there!**

Yuffie is angry. Yuffie if fuming. Yuffie is _**outraged!**_

Sure, the mysterious guy beat the bald guy, but still! I, the Great Ninja was supposed to kick his ass instead, not the one idly watching in the stands next to some corpulent guy (who wolfed down too much Macdonald's hamburgers and is making weird gag-worthy noises) as the battle unfolds!

I can't believe they let this happen! They didn't even _notice! _I mean, isn't the tournament guys supposed to do something about this? That black haired guy impersonated me! I'm the Great Ninja Yuffie! No one takes my bloody title! I can't see Rikku or Roxas anywhere, so I can't complain my ass away. The other soldiers didn't believe me when I said that it was _my _turn to fight, they just chuckled to themselves and shoved past me like I was some imbecile! And let me tell you this. Yuffie is NO imbecile. Do I look like some mindless nut, who doesn't know what she is talking about?

…

It was a rhetorical question, but if it did have an answer the reply would be a very confident (and correct might I add) 'no'. The guards were inconsiderate! They were rude to such a _lady_ like myself. They had no idea who they just dismissed…I'll show those pieces of trash…

Wait. I had to _take care _of one person at a time. And the first person on my hit list would be that guy who took my turn in the colosseum. When I get my hands on him, he won't have any legitimate bones left and will become a pawned ninja food.

I had run all the way down the stairs, past those oblique columns, through the corridor, flash the guards my ID to let me in, flipped past the door and BAM!

Now I was to where most of the competitors hung out after a match. Like I had thought, my target had been confirmed to be within the vicinity and I was moving in for the kill.

Think, **n i n j a**. _I am a stealth warrior moving in the night._ No one can see me. I am one with the darkness, an invisible shadow in the black abyss.

But the thing was, it was daytime and the lights were on, so no one would sue the owners of the colosseum for lack of light, causing someone to trip due to their insufficient supply of light. Regulations these days…So troublesome.

If I were a shadow, I would be the first one seen because of all the light surging from the windows and lights. And it turned out…some warriors turned to look at me like I was crazy. I heard some idiot mumble, '_oh…its just the crazy chick,' _and another murmur '_I saw her talk to herself.'_

I admit about the talking to myself part, it's not that _strange _to do that…right? _Riiight_?

…

I'll pretend you didn't stare at me like an idiot and take your awkward silence and the rolling of a dust ball in the wind as a _yes_. Well anyways, returning to the matter at hand, I had a victim to torture, annoy and possibly smack a few suicidal thoughts in that thick head of his. Lurking amongst the walls, I neared the blacked hair man, sneaking around quietly like a mouse. He turned around, facing away from me, and I knew… this was my chance to strike!

Ready, set… go!_ (Think, too fast too furious )_

Like a sports car I accelerated; leaping up as my leg flew in the air, aiming my boot for his head. It appeared he didn't notice that I was attacking him as he continued to drink his bottle of water.

_**BAM!**_

He had ducked down as he saw something shiny on the floor, as I completely missed him and flew right over him like a gazelle. I ended up colliding with a piece of training equipment that was made out of metal. It felt like I had hit the stone giant all over again. Yes…major _p a i n. _It hurt as my leg connected with the strong titanium alloy of the equipment. Sadly, my target had looked around and his piercing gold eyes glared at me with anger for the sudden intrusion of personal space.

_Eep_! I gave him a nervous smile, as I scratched my head.

So if I am supposed to be the predator? Why did I turn out to be the prey? I wanted to smack myself at my stupidity for the next thing I did could have got me killed…

I lunged my gloved fist towards his head, for making me feel weak and scared. Sadly, he had dodged it completely with a swift turn to the right with his uber (luck I say) reflexes.

"Piece of shit…" He cursed, punching me in the guts as I flew back five feet, smashing into the wall. Crumbling down, I landed on my butt as I managed to pick myself up with rage stirring in my eyes.

This was embarrassing. I was getting owned by the person that I was supposed to own.

For (fcuking) shame!

Humiliation sunk into the pits of my stomach as a crowd gathered due to the commotion.

"You stole _my_ turn! How dare you!" I growled, going in to attack him again. No one messes with Yuffie Kisaragi! Each hit I threw at him, he parried it like the arrogant bastard he was. I took a deep breath and he used the cheap opportunity to throw an attack at me. With a thrust of his arm, he tried to punch the living daylights out of me. Luckily I had avoided it, flipping backwards and landing on my feet. _Ninja 101: Know your acrobatics._

"You're buggin' me _small shit. _I know killin' is against the rules, but I don't mind getting disqualified if it means getting rid of annoyin _shits_ like you. Leave and I'll spare you" He threatened as I returned his evil menacing glare right back at him. The mystery guy sure loves the word 'shit' that's for sure. The black-haired warrior was trying to scare me off and there was no way, I would let my pride disintegrate! I spat in his face, smirking like the proud hero I am (to others- I may look like a complete idiot, but I am not other people so take that!).

_Heh_. He was speechless. The guy was so furious that I could feel the angry vibes burning out from the ferocious blaze behind the gold specks that surrounded his pupils.

The warrior wanted me dead, as his metal gloves wiped my spit away from his face. He sped towards me with such agile that I didn't see his hands reach down for his weapon. Talk about cheating! It was supposed to be a fight without weapons, yet he went so low and grabbed it out.

In an instant, the sharp scythe sprung out like a hammer, his weapon of doom towering over my head. The sharp sheen blade scintillating a sanguineous hue in the sunray; like a messenger of hell. He was my grim reaper and he was going to slice & dice me. I couldn't move an inch; the intense hatred radiating from his gelid eyes sucked me in, like a zephyr about to consume my soul. From seeing the black haired man's fight previously, I was cognizant of his virtuosity, especially with the scythe.

Was I going to fail? I guess I wasn't going to fulfil my promise. I was going to die way to young. There were so many things I wanted to do, wanted to see, wanted to experience. Yet, I wasted it on a promise…Was my life only worth a promise? Yet, I couldn't even accomplish it. I can't believe the Great Ninja is reduced to something so lowly. _I'm sorry…Aerith…I hope you forgive me…_

_**CLING!**_

The clamorous sound of blades clashing made my eyes flutter open as a large sword appeared in front of me. The bandaged sword had shielded me from the scythe's attack, as I tried to get my heart beating at a normal rate. A strand of gold floated down, drifting in the mystical gravity of the air. It had glimmered, catching my eye, as I knew who had saved me from my death.

Besides, who else had a massive buster sword and blonde hair?

The problem with this picture is that now I owed him for saving my life. Damn! Being in debt to chocobo head wasn't a very good thing. It was like signing away your soul to the devil. Maybe death would have been a better alternative.

My eyes widened as I felt like I nearly died again. My heart…it felt like it had stopped working as the hot breathing of my saviour tickled my neck. Slowly, I forced myself to move as I gazed up at the blonde swordsman, his mako-enhanced eyes glaring with such intensity at the person who tried to kill me. I had always seen him so serious and calm. It was kind of nerve racking being so up close to Cloud, he seemed like a whole different person. I had never seen him so close before, as I finally had a good look at him through the red cape. I was lost for words.

Noticing me observing him, his sapphire eyes glancing at me as a familiar smirk touched his lips. That smirk…hey! That was _**my **_trademark sneaky smirk! And he had perfected _**my **_smirk! Ugh! Another person was stealing one of my things. But the fortunate part was that Cloud actually looked really hot with my smirk- so I won't smash his face in with my shurikens. It looked like he was born with it, with a charismatic debonair. He was protecting me- even though I didn't _need _it but Cloud was acting un-Cloud like for once. And it was very…

I don't know. I have this weird light feeling in my stomach, and it feels good. I can't describe it properly but it feels kind of good…Maybe this was why Aerith fell in love with this knucklehead?

"I can't let you die. I gotta beat you up first," he whispered to me. Previous nice thoughts of him just disappeared. He's still a heartless ass, but the way he spoke to me was with such humour that I couldn't refrain my cheeks from heating up. He just used one of my lines against me! Did Cloud Strife use my own words against me! Gah- I was breaking that callous barrier around him. I feel so proud. _–sniffsniff-_

"Cloud Strife, is it?" The black haired man articulated Cloud's name, his voice filled with power and pride. "Defending a little shit I see." Seriously, if I get paid a dollar for each time this guy said 'shit', I would be filthy rich and can buy all the ice cream I wanted. Then I would go on a major sugar-high and start bouncing off walls and oh gawsh! I sound like the happy-go-lucky Rikku. Sometimes I wonder if someone sewed her mouth into a constant smile, because how was that possible! Didn't her cheeks hurt if she smiled 24/7?

Well, I just solved her next Christmas present. Healing cream to treat cheek pains.

Cloudy hesitated at first, before he narrowed his enigmatic eyes in glowering anger. "Are you so licentious to lash out at little girls?" Cloud asked, dotted with witty charm. I didn't know whether to glomp him or to club his head in for calling me a 'little girl'. Either way, I remained silent. It was fascinating to see chocobo head like this.

"What is a little shit like her doing 'ere anyway? What was Seifer thinkin? More worthless blood to spill." The raven-haired rogue retorted with acerbity.

"A criminal just like yuurself Yue." Commander Seifer interrupted, his languid yet erudite voice breaking up the dispute. "Leave the animosity for the battlefield yeah? I don't want the two only criminals from the prison batch to die behind the scenes. Wouldn't put a good show…" So the guy's name was Yue. Yue means moon – pretty name. Pity it was given to such a jackass.

"Don't lower my standards to this little shit over there." Yue spat, flicking his long choppy layered hair out of his face.

"What are you talking about dingdong? You impersonated me and took my turn!" I huffed, finally getting my long awaited opinion across.

"YOUR turn? Did a shit like you even check the timetable?"

"Y-yy-y-yes!" I stammered; eyes glaring on his piece-of-ass forehead. If I concentrate hard enough, would a hole burn through? "I was al-lo-cat-ed in that time slot." Cloud was being awfully quiet now, an ambidextrous feeling swirling in his head.

"Incorrect, it was Yue's match." Seifer's poignant voice stated, showing me the timetable.

Mr Y Kisaragi vs Rude, in a little cell of the neatly drawn table. It was palpable that it was referring to ME- aside from the Mister part, which some fatuous dumbass made some error. So maybe everyone was BLIND except for me! Actually Rikku had pointed that bit out to me as well. What was wrong with the world? Does it have a personal grudge against me?

I did nothing wrong…sure, I'm not oh-so-perfect like that saint Aerith. But I do my part…_when I can_ or _want_ to _–cough- _(which by the way- is never) –_cough-_.

"Mr Y Kisaragi…is ME." I hastily replied.

"Mister? You're a male…? Ai…society these days…" Yue sighed, slightly amused.

"Well aside from the Mister part, smarty pants." I chided, tongue sticking out in spite. No way would I abnegate and let fancy smancy Yue win when he is wrong! Just because he has some nice white armour with a pretty gold Arabesque design on it. That portentous prick wasn't going to have the last laugh.

Seifer rolled his eyes. Instead of taming a stupid argument, he could be eating his sandwich that Rikku had prepared for him. Why she prepared it for him got him rather suspicious of poisoning…however after previous experience of making her brother Roxas test the food first, he had grown accustom to her delicious lunches. So he might as well solve the whole predicament instead of listening to them exchange verbal abuse. "He's Yue Kisaragi." The commander stated, which resulted in my blinking of eyes and then an eruption of hysterical laughter. My stormy orbs grew watery, yet my laughter may seem like a vociferous volcano to others. I prefer to compare my laughter to a sweet whimsical melody, but no one ever seems to think so…-_poutpout-_

"Oh gawd…that's a good one." I began, patting Seifer on the back light heartedly. Didn't think that stoic bastard had it in him to formulate a joke.

My massive grin grew thinner when I saw the serious and confused countenance emanating from both Yue and Seifer. They looked at me like…like I had ten heads! No- Cloud in a tutu, because ten heads were common in Mt Olympus. Ever seen a head-growing hydra or one of those freaky ogres.

"Cloud, they don't seem to be joking do they?" I whispered to Mr Strife, still retaining a smile on my face.

"They're serious." Cloud's two-word answer. Three if you count they're as two words.

"Oh shit. I look like an idiot don't I?"

"Yep." A one-word reply this time.

"Tactful aren't you?"

"I prefer the word …_honest_." Heh, Cloud has gained 500 experience points and levelled up to class: WITTY JERK. At least it beats his usual '…' answers.

For the sake of my sanity, I would not capitulate to some smug ass Yue! My last attempt at being victorious in the battle of the wits left me with a lousy: "You stole my last name."

Yue's lips parted, but no words came out.

YOSH! Didn't think such a lame call would prove effective! And for the next ten seconds were filled with awkward silence. Maybe Yue figured out that saying 'no, you stole MY last name' proved to be utterly pointless and would only fire up an aimless result. Even I had enough common sense to predict that. But I can't believe that jerk shared my awesome last name!

"Well…don't kill each other _yet._" Seifer chided, breaking the silence with a frustrated sigh. Combing his military jacket, he departed…

& So there were three.

Yue Kisaragi, the 'shithead' because he used the word 'shit' so much. Creative pseudonym he gets.

Cloud Strife, the hot- err…did I just say that? Something must be wrong with me. Yes, it must be the introduction of this Yue guy interfering with my sanity. Well, Cloud is just Cloud. The guy I've been searching for 3 years and 4 months.

And there was me, Yuffie Kisaragi- who coincidentally shares the same last name as Yue. But everybody loves me better :D _huahua_

"What's your name?" Yue asked, his icy almond shaped eyes fixated on me. So the ass, finally decides that he should call me by my UNIQUE name- not many people are bestowed with a name such uber cool as mine.

"The Great Ninja Yuffie, who's going to kick YOUR ass in the colosseum." I smirked proudly, and suddenly the burning irritation that scarred his face mitigated, into an imperturbable expression. Wow. So maybe Yue's sudden disappearance of anger is that he has heard of my audacious adventures and secretly reveres me as his idol! Nyuk nyuk nyuk.

"I thought you were dead." Yue responded his voice shaky as my eyes widened like saucers. Cloud too shared my response. Did this guy completely forget that he tried to slay me with his cadaverously decorated scythe?

"No, I'm well alive…heh…" I trailed off, raising my brow. I'm not sure how to respond to 'my fan'. Perhaps there was a rumour that I had fallen on a courageous journey. However his face still seemed to be of disbelief. "See. Cloud, hit me and if I feel anything I'm aliv- OWWWW!"

"What? You told me to hit you." The blonde replied innocently. Maybe I shouldn't have requested Cloud to hit me, but it seemed like a good idea five seconds ago.

"Well it stung a little bit. Like a mosquito bite because Cloud is a weakling." I stuck my tongue out in annoyance at Cloud.

"Then why are you making that face."

"WHAT face?"

"The you-hit-me-you-asshole face."

"I always make this face."

"No, you usually have a I'm-up-to-no-good face." Damn, Cloud is getting good.

"…Point is, I'm breathing Yue." I gave a weak smile. Yue's mouth is still gaped. Hmmm…okay…Do I just leave now? It seems like he doesn't want to rip my head off anymore. "So… can you stop looking at me like that please? It's creepy…" I quickly said in one breath, not quite sure if he picked it up though, but I kinda didn't want to piss him off again. Yue must be infatuated with me and my pulchritudinous charm. Besotted by my wonderful and well-known name!

"Do you… remember me… Yuffie?" He finally spoke, stuttering a little. It seemed his murderous wolf-like demeanour no longer existed. But yes, I remember you Yue. You bumped into me earlier at the training room and threatened me and then we met today and you tried to kill me. How could I forget such a _lovely munificent _being?

Instead I answered, "No…"

"Oh…I'm your…" Yue paused, and from my psychological skills, he was trying to phrase his words carefully without sounding insane because he looked like he was bordering it right now. "Do you remember anything…at all?"

Er…yes, a few minutes ago you tried to kill me and I was trying to kill you. But I'm guessing you forgot that and I can too if you don't ever place your super sharp scythe near my neck. "Um…what?"

"About your family?"

My family? The sound resonated in my head; it was a term somewhat foreign to me. But I guess my family was the people who I could turn to, the ones waiting for me in my home.

"Um…there's Aerith, Squall or as he likes to call him LE-ON. And there's this fella Cloud too," I replied, as a jab was made to the invisible barrier of his. Yes, I couldn't believe that I included Mr-too-cool-for-Transverse-Town-Strife as my family, but it kind of just…came out. The chocobo head had left when I was young, so he missed out a lot of me growing up- not that he would have cared because he was selfish like that.

I mean, he could make my life a hell lot easier if he just accepted to join me back to Transverse Town to see the beloved Aerith. It would make her life a lot easier too and everyone would be happy (not including Cloud maybe, but who cares about him anyway). Sure, he did protect me like a hero and stood up for me.

He also did wait for me outside my hospital room when I was injured, which was kind of sweet b-b-b-but…

He was Cloud Strife a-a-a-and…

"About Wutai? Do you remember Wutai?" Yue asked, interrupting my internal cogitation –oh yah, big word there Yuffie . Wow, good work Yue. Saved me from…my OWN questions, if that made any sense.

"Wutai? What's that? Can I eat it?"

"Wutai is a place, where I'm from… Where we're from."

"Riiiiiiiiiiiight. Who the _hell_ are you to say that?"

"I'm your… brother… Your _family_."

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**to be continued**

**A/N**- The chapter was really long to make up for a few months of non-updating. There aren't many clouffies out there, if you got one, PM me and I'll check it out. I need inspiration & I have completely forgot the planned events of the story, except for the ending. Aside from that, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Feedback is greatly appreciated. xD

Love to those who reviewed!

x. kaikai / kaidorei / caroline


	10. Chapter 9: on my mind

**My Search for You**

By **Kaikai pants** (formerly kawaii eyez)

Disclaimer- same as before.

**A/N**- 23 September 2007 : OMG an update! Proud of me?

-------**x o **x**-------- **

_There are so many paths, yet they all lead me to one direction. _

chapter** nine**: On my mind

Somehow she found herself here.

Somehow they had found themselves together.

Unconsciously, their eyes had met and both of them had the same question in their heads.

"What are you doing here?" Yuffie was the quicker out of the two as she spat the question out first.

"This is MY bedroom." And then that was when it hit her. She was standing in the exquisitely decorated room of the Colloseum's fighters' quarters. Not alone, but with Cloud Strife and he was staring at her like an intruder. Though that was what normal people would feel too, if someone popped by in your room unannounced after you just had a shower.

Now, she had took the current silence for him to ask the question of 'what are you doing here?' but he remained quiet. So instead, Yuffie's own mind decided to ask herself: what are you doing in Cloud's bedroom anyway?

She was distracted; far too distracted like it was written on her face.

Yuffie was too careless when she fought her first competitor today. She was facing a man named Marluxia who was rather fond of wearing a black cloak. They must be fashionable or something because Xigbar sported the look as well. Nevertheless Yuffie didn't even seem to notice the danger emanating from him, so she didn't even give a damn about his choice of fashion.

She was losing at first, her mind was distant as she sluggishly moved as painful blows were sent against her body. Then it was like something clicked within her, as her eyes narrowed. Her gigantic shuriken flicked out from behind her back, as it did its fatal dance.

She had won, as she walked out of the colloseum's battleground, walking straight past Roxas and Rikku. The black haired ninja made a weak smile when the two congratulated her on her win as she continued on her path to wherever. The blonde siblings just assumed she was tired.

But perhaps she was _actually_ tired; tired of everything.

Her legs kept walking, as she tossed the (rather sweaty) towel off her shoulders and took a drink of water to clear her thoughts. She just kept walking, walking through the grandiose corridors, past the Greek statues of heroes and Gods. Achilles, Hercules, Zeus, Ares. An archeologist or perhaps an art student would stop and admire the architecture of the statue, or perhaps the design. In fact, even an unschooled eye could tell that the mastery of the sculptor was beyond anything.

Though Yuffie didn't care.

She was far too distracted on the things troubling her mind.

She was always carefree, wanderlust fueling her energy as she continued to travel the world. Now, she had momentarily forgotten about her little promise to Aerith as she was caught on something else, as her legs kept striding, boots tapping lightly against the marble flooring.

And then heading towards her own bedroom (next to Cloud's coincidentally), she had turned into Cloud's room unconsciously. That was how distracted she was. It felt natural to go to his room, or rather be met by the front of his door because she usually knocked on it and yelled for him with the frequency of a fire alarm.

Behind the door, Cloud would get annoyed and just ignore her, thinking the frivolous ninja would assume that he wasn't there. But then she would say- correction- scream: "I know you're there Chocobo-head!" And for some unknown reason, Cloud would sigh and answer the door. But he would never let her enter his room and she wouldn't make an attempt to go in it.

So why is it that she was here?

She was on her way to HER room! Was she _that_ distracted not to notice that she went to the wrong room? Apparently so.

"My bad, wrong room," Yuffie laughed, surveying her surroundings. How she didn't notice the rather massive buster sword and not conclude that the room wasn't hers is a mystery. So of course, Cloud didn't believe her answer at all but couldn't bother to argue. Her laugh soon died out when she realized she was the only one laughing, as she continued to stand there, being distracted on her own internal thinking.

"So, what are you _still_ doing here?" Yes, that was the more polite version of 'get the fcuk outta my room now.' Sure, he could have added a few pleases and thank yous but Cloud wasn't the caring type anyway. Then again, neither was Yuffie.

Though, she was far too distracted to understand the not-very-subtle hint the blonde swordsman was trying to imply. Instead, the raven haired ninja sat down and leaned into its plush covers of his seat.

"Hey, this is comfy. How come I don't get one in MY room?" She said, stroking the armrest in awe. "I'm so kidnapping this chair to my room."

"You snuck into my room…just to steal a chair?"

"No."

"So you don't want my chair."

"Oh, I'm still getting your chair, I just didn't come here FOR your chair."

"Okay, so why did you come to my room without asking for?"

"If I asked you probably wouldn't let me in anyway."

"Ever heard of something called _privacy_?"

"What's that?"

"Obviously not."

"Obviously you haven't heard of something called _sarcasm. _Yeah, take that smarty pants!"

"Are you trying to kill me?"

"What? NO! Why do you always think I'm trying to kill you!?"

"Why else would you sneak into my room _unexpectedly_."

"I'm sorry Mr paranoid but you can relax. Murdering you isn't exactly on my list of to-dos…_yet_."

"So you want to kidnap me and bring me to Tranverse Town to see Aerith?"

"Good idea…but no. I just want to kidnap YOUR uber comfy chair."

"Aren't you going to answer what you're doing here and WHY you are _still _here?" He tilted his head, his light eyebrows furrowing in slight irritation.

"Like I said, I mistook your room for mine."

"Do you normally choose to not use your keys and instead pick the lock of your door to get in it?"

"You're unusually asking a lot of questions today."

"You're unusually avoiding my questions today." Damn, he had a good point.

"Fine! Honestly, I don't know why I'm here. I thought this was my room, but I couldn't be bothered to ask why my key didn't fit into the door so I just lock picked it. I wasn't thinking straight. I really need to talk to someone but Rikku and Roxas are on duty. So many things have just happened recently and my brain isn't fast enough to catch up with it all," she hastily answered.

"Okay, second question: what are you still doing here?"

"I'm too lazy to move cos this chair is comfy." Cloud nodded. It was a fair enough answer, but then rewinding their conversation a little, he recalled Yuffie saying '_I really need to talk to someone_.'

Oh crap. That meant he was probably going to be the person she was going to unleash her relatively loquacious tongue on and feed him rambling garbage.

Scratching the back of his head of blonde spikes, he was unsure what to do. He had never let anyone enter his room before, let alone a girl. Not that he was planning to do anything _unusual _with her, even though he was just wearing pants and was pretty sure, it wouldn't be hard to take off her clothes too. Though those boots she was wearing might be a bit difficult to get off. Then again, he could probably chop them off her feet with his buster sword- or perhaps not.

He didn't want to slice off her whole leg- or rather the whole sexy long leg of hers. Besides, he didn't know how to do it anyway, let alone manage how to take off those knee-high boots of her. Anyways, she came here to 'talk' right…unless, she had made up that whole story and didn't want to talk at all and get straight to-

Oh crap. Now Cloud's mind was doing too much thinking. Damn Yuffie for spreading her 'internal-talking' to him. Why was he thinking of doing un-Cloud like innuendos with that ninja anyway? So what if she is sitting on her chair, with those short-shorts and those legs far apart.

Did she know how provocative she is looking right now? Sitting like that should be considered a sin!

"I can't believe I have a brother!" Yuffie burst out, as Cloud was secretly thanking her for stopping his own thoughts from getting out of hand.

"Isn't that good?"

"It is. It's really good having someone as family. I mean, he's a relatively nice person even though he says 'shit' awfully too much and tried to kill me twice. He apologized for the killing part though, which is good I guess," her fingers drummed against her cheek.

"So how do you feel now?" Cloud wanted to stab his tongue for sounding like a psychiatrist.

"I dunno, I feel really weird, relieved, shocked yet happy all at the same time. We talked about Wutai and stuff, after you left. Imagine if Yue and I were still together. I probably wouldn't have lived in Tranverse Town and be traveling with him and stuff."

"Are you thinking about what life would have been without meeting Aerith and Leon…?" He trailed off considering whether to include himself but decided not to. She didn't even recall being with him in Tranverse Town anyway.

"I guess so. I've always thought my parents didn't love me and abandoned me or something." Cloud took this in; he had always perceived her as an optimist so it was odd seeing her like this.

"So if you were traveling with Yue…what would you be doing anyway? Isn't he a criminal…like you I guess."

"Hey! I'm not a criminal…I just got caught stealing food." Yuffie laughed lightly. "Um…apparently he's a serial killer or something. _Heh_…that's kinda creepy actually. He was working with these men under a group called Shinra Inc."

Cloud's fist clenched. Shinra Inc was the same group Sephiroth had begun his psychopathic killing spree with. "Yue is dangerous. You shouldn't go near him."

"But he's my older brother. I mean, sure it's a bit weird that he's killed people before but that was his only choice of survival…Anyway it's not like you haven't?" She lightheartedly replied.

"Don't compare me with someone as ruthless as him." He hastily snapped, before realizing as he looked away and slowed down his pace. "You do remember that if I didn't save you, you would have been minced ninja meat."

Yuffie gulped. Minced ninja meat wasn't particularly appetizing to her. "He said he'll shout me lunch for that. Actually, I kinda made him feel guilty and insisted/forced he did. B-b-b-but the _point _is…he's my family." She stubbornly stammered out from her lips.

"I thought you said Aerith, Leon and…I…were your family," he answered sharply, as Yuffie's eyes immediately darted to his face, shock in her eyes. Did that mean he wanted to come back with me to Tranverse Town? Hope flooded into her, before she recalled the bet she made with him. Cloud had someone to find too and she didn't want to remind him about it. Considering the situation, she had guessed that he had left Tranverse Town adamantly yet unwillingly alone. Had he always been alone until now?

"Cloud…" Her voice softened.

"Forget what I said…"

"Cloud wait!" Yuffie sprung up, as her hand rested on his built shoulder before he could turn and leave.

"What?" He replied acridly.

Her eyes traveled up his face, as grey pools linked with his sapphire orbs. "Thank you… for saving me."

He replied with a simple nod to acknowledge her appreciation. Sure, it wasn't a 'your welcome' or a 'my pleasure' but it was something. She smiled, as the two stood in that position for a while.

"Yuffie…"

"Yeah?"

"Your hand is dropping sweat on me."

The cheerful ninja grinned. She hadn't taken a shower since her fight at the colloseum. "Heh, sorry bout that." She stuck out her tongue, knocking her head lightly with her hand, as she saw that the beads of her sweat did pool upon his bare shoulder. His bare shoulder that was connected to his muscular arms. Those muscular arms that matched his bare muscular body. That muscular body with those sexy six-pecks.

HOLY SHIT! He was shirtless!

"Er…Yuffie?"

"I'm not sweating on you or… drooling or something?" The kleptomaniac responded, her eyes still glued on Cloud's body.

"No, your nose is bleeding."

-------**x o **x**-------- **

**A/N**- Around 2070 words.

I'm getting a bit off track from the plot, but its slowly getting there.

I miss Clouffies dearly. There are hardly around anymore. If you have one (and I haven't read/reviewed it), shoot it my way with a PM. But yes, Cloud and Yuffie ficts were the reason I got addicted to fanfiction.

And for those new readers, notice how there is a major gap between the starting and the now dates. So sorry about the changing and twisting of writing styles. Oh yeah, feel free to give me a stimulus (eg. Words, lyrics) for the next chapter, because I can't seem to think of titles or what to write in the chapter without rushing things.

Thanks to the reviewers of the last chapter: Lady Da Qiao of Wu, Tsuby, The DayDreaming, MD, moonstarlight, crazycutie2, Meadowcroft, jumarien, anhni and the reviewers for all the chapters. Thank you. They really do make it more worth writing.

Tell me what you want to happen! Kiss scene? Fight scene? Some other random funny thing- that I can't think of right now. Feedback is wonderful.

x---kaikai / kaidorei / caroline


	11. Chapter 10: trust

My Search for You  
By Kaikai pants [formerly kawaii eyez 

Disclaimer- same as before.  
**A/N**- le gaspeth' its chapter number lucky ten!! 24 Nov 07- i updated two of my stories today, before I go on holidays. Hope you enjoy & thanks for reading.

-------**x o **x**--------**

_"Er…Yuffie?" _

"I'm not sweating on you or… drooling or something?"

"No… your nose is bleeding."

-------**x o **x**--------**

Chapter ten: Trust

--_Cloud's quarters _

Cloud is shirtless.  
Yuffie's nose is bleeding.  
Need you do the maths?

She already has trouble breathing just staring at Cloud's sexy shirtless figure, and now she has a nosebleed. Embarrassment much? Oh, she only feels like she's going to get a bloody fcuking cardiac arrest! No _big_ deal.

"Yuffie…are you okay?" That was Cloud, doing his innocent I'm-trying-to-act-like-I-give-a-fcuk look, which he fails miserably since he was the source of her nose bleeding conundrum in the first place.

"NO! DO I look OKAY? There is blood leaking from my nose. I'm gonna to die from lack of blood if you don't gimme something to dry it with!" Okay…so she was over-exaggerating a little about the dying part. But she wants to kill herself from embarrassment. She's a ninja, a damn lethal one- and now she's having a nosebleed like some perverted high school girl.

His hand dipped for the closest thing on him to dry her bleeding nose. It was his towel; the same towel that was covering his … male 'parts'. Oh, it seems that Cloud wasn't particularly the sharpest tool in the shed when someone was panicking (from a nosebleed). Note- when Tritan is feeling like a bitch and sends a tsunami your way, Cloud isn't the best person to be with. 

"Er…Cloud. Don't touch that towel. It's the only thing keeping me from seeing your…" Yuffie paused, hiding her bleeding nose from Cloud's sight, as it seemed to grow worse. "Don't just stand there! Get me some tissues!" She shouted desperately (and a little dramatically), as he immediately (and obediently) left to comply to his wishes. Now if only he would listen to her persuasion and get his ass back to Tranverse Town with her to see Aerith.

The funny thing was- when Cloud left, her nose stopped bleeding.

He then returned, and her heart beat quickened as she tried to avert her eyes from his sweat dripping drool-worthy body. Her nose dug into the tissues, he tossed at her.

Now she felt very apprehensive that a pair of enchanting blue eyes were on her, the mélange of concern and distress behind those ocean pools galvanised the racing of her heart and it wasn't really helping her nose much. Every now and then, she gave a cursory glance to see blonde warrior's eyes on her (and his sexy body) before darting her eyes back to her knees.

Cloud sighed. All he wanted to do was do some training with his buster sword and maintain his tip top shape. But noooooo, he was stuck babysitting some nose-bleeding ninja who had broke into his bedroom.

"AHHHH!"

"What Yuffie? Is your head hurting? Is something wrong?" If Yuffie could kill the butterflies in her stomach, then she would have been cognizant on how Cloud had managed to say all that in one breath. Now Yuffie wanted to tell him that she wasn't really going to die from a simple nosebleed, but then she would contradict what she previously said. 

"No…it's not that…" She bit her lip, wanting to laugh at how gullible this antisocial man was- but he was only showing his concern for her. However, the female ninja was perplexed. Did Cloud think someone as great and valiant like Yuffie Kisaragi would DIE from a nosebleed? NO WAY! Perhaps the blonde lost a few too much brain cells whilst competing in the Coliseum.

After all, the blonde swordsman had grown up a little too quickly, since he left Tranverse Town at a young age. He probably didn't realize how 'dangerous' a nosebleed really was, and how they were created. Honestly, the ninja's problem really wasn't the fact that her nose was bleeding at all.

"You don't look okay…" Cloud said unconvinced. Yes, he liked stating the obvious.

"Don't worry."

"I worry. What is it?"

"It's embarrassing…" She stammered, forcing herself to avert her eyes off his heavenly sculpted body.

Now, he wanted to hear it even more. "Yuffie…"

Then after all the nervous tension of him staring at her and her lip biting, she just couldn't stand it anymore. "UGHH! Damnit woman! Cover your tits!"

Cloud's eyes nearly popped out. Yuffie literally kicked herself inside and out as she forced her eyes to the ground from the shame.

If the ninja was thinking a little more clearly, she could have just said, 'can you please put on a shirt?' But nooo, the kleptomaniac was a little off the definition of sane.

"Not that you don't have like womanly tits or anything, and trust me I don't mind seeing your chest- oh goooood… You put on your shirt."

Silence.

"Mmhmm…now that my nose is better, I s-s-s-should go to my room, where I was s-s-s-supposed to be in the first place…heh…heh..."

"Er…Yuffie. Where are you going?"

"I'm going out of your room now. Y'know, like you wanted me to…"

"Where's my materia?"

"Materia? How should I know where it is?"

"Give it back…"

"What materia?"

"The materia you so carefully purloined off me, when you didn't think I would notice."

"Me? Steal? Do you think I'm some type of _thief- _" Yuffie paused abruptly, knowing that she was put in jail for stealing food in the first place. "-Don't answer that. I can't believe you don't trust me!"

"I trust you…" Cloud paused, as the ninja smiled lightly. "…Just not with my materia."

"I swear you have eyes on the back of your head…" she muttered, handing over the magically encrypted orbs to its rightful owner. "I'm going to go now." The materia hunter merrily skipped before she heard her name and turned around.

"Yuffie…the other one?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Your pocket…Return.it.now."

Yuffie glared at him, before grumbling some undecipherable profanities under her breath as she returned his materia.

Cloud looked at her back, scrutinising his room for any missing objects.

She stood in his room innocently.

He glanced at her with a brow raised.

She stood there.

He stood there.

"Umm…Yuffie…"

"Yes?"

"You can…go now..."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Yuffie…"

"Mm…yes?"

"Why are you _still_ here?"

"I'm er…_refurnishing_…" The ninja gave a broad smile, dragging the chair behind her out the door.

"You're a stubborn brat."

"Wow, I haven't been called that since I was little."

He released a sigh. "You're stealing my chair aren't you?"

"Kaythanksbye ."

-------**x o **x**-------- **

"Oomph…ugh…stupidheavypieceofshit…oh…Hi Yue!"

"Yuffie, I thought I'd just drop by since I'm your brother an' all- SHIT. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

"Stealing Cloud's chair."

"Am I seriously related to you?" Yue sighed, wandering what would be the 'brotherly' thing to do now. Accustomed to isolating himself from everyone, Yue wasn't really sure how to act like a _normal_ big brother. Then again and he was pretty sure most _normal_ younger sisters didn't steal chairs from other people's rooms. His long-lost younger sister was definitely insane. "…Need help?"

-------**x o **x**--------**

Roxas was the example of a diligent soldier. Even though Commander Seifer was far from magnanimous, the commander saw Roxas' conscientious and loyal ways and was planning on promoting him. Seifer could picture Roxas as an individual soon to have a high rank and position upon the army, with sashes rows of badges of honour. Roxas was the bloke everyone was easy to get along with. In fact, he was the soldier that the criminals hated the least, since all criminals hated the soldiers to bits. On the other hand, his older sister Rikku was the antithesis of a wonderful soldier.

Sure she knew the rules back to front, yet she was more affably careless, as instead of patrolling the grounds the green eyed girl looked like she was dancing. She had a hopeless sense of direction. Give her a destination 10 metres away, and consider herself lost. That was the main reason, Seifer had to appointed her to a specific surroundings (the Colosseum) so she wouldn't find herself in some other place out of Mt Olympus. 

Seifer had to always keep an eye on the erratic blonde female, which wasn't hard. She was quite easy to spot with her colourful beads and bright contoured scarf that she had insisted on wearing even if it wasn't part of the army policy.

"Guess who-AHHHH!" Rikku was thrown off guard, as Seifer spun around and pointed his gun blade inches away from her face.

"Oh…Rikku. Don't sneak up on me ever again…" He narrowed his eyes sternly, before he lowered his weapon. The cheerful blonde girl gulped, wiping the sweat that developed on her forehead, as she gave him a nervous nod.

"Sorry sir…"

"Aren't you supposed to be on duty?"

"Yep…but before you usher me off, I wanna ask you a question."

"If you must…" The commander rolled his eyes. He didn't know why he hadn't fired Rikku yet. He viewed her as overly positive and clumsily incompetent.

"What type of ice cream do you like?" The smiling blonde asked, flicking her rainbow scarf over her shoulder.

"You took time of guard duty to ask me that?"

"Roxas is coverin' for me cos it got boring like a boring thing. Such a good brother Roxas is don't you think?"

"I should have known. You really came to discuss about Roxas didn't you?"

"Oh you're a smart cookie!" Rikku giggled, her radiant golden locks bouncing about. Seifer rolled his eyes, straightening his army jacket.

"Don't ever call me a cookie-"

"Yes sir."

"Or any form of food."

"Awww…mmkay sir. Anyway before you kick me out, I just want to say how a good soldier Roxas is and that he's been working hard. And he's really kind and patriotic to his country. He will protect the good citizens in the name of justice-"

"Oh Zeus, you talk too much." Seifer face-palmed himself.

"I'm not making this up! I don't have the creativity to make something up. But-"

"You want me to promote him just because _you _think he deserves it?"

"Bingo! I'm just expressing my opinion so like don't kill me or anything-" She shielded her face with her hands, not liking her commander's serious tone.

"Rikku!"

"EEP!"

"I'm ordering you to look at me!"

"Y-y-y-yes sir…?" She eerily looked up to the blonde commander.

"You, a lower subject want me, your commander to promote Roxas?" Seifer bellowed. She nodded weakly in response. "Well, I was going to promote him. He is a fine soldier."

"Oh my gawsh!" She squealed.

"Don't squeal."

"Yes sir! Oh gawsh! I love you!" She tossed her arms around the stoic commander, as his cheeks turned a slight salmon.

"Don't glomp me again."

"Sorry sir." She laughed nervously, unwrapping herself slowly. "What is your favourite ice cream anyway?"

"Does it really matter or are you trying to change the subject so you don't have to go back to duty?" The commander speculated.

"It matters to me. What is it?"

"Sea salt."

-------**x o **x**--------**

Everything was going uneventful so far.

Yuffie, Yue and Cloud had won all their matches and had made their way up the tournament ladder. Another mysterious volunteer under the name of Ansem had participated. Yuffie had once watched one of his matches, and the red clad man was a warrior to be wary of. His paired matches should rather be called a bloodbath. There was another competitor under the pseudonym of 'Jenova'. She crossed her fingers, praying not to verse such as merciless opponent.

Yuffie and Yue were catching up on everything, which mainly consisted of Yue half-sleeping through her adventurous tales of her life. After all Yuffie's braggadocio thrown upon him, the black haired man couldn't distinguish between fact and fiction. Though, it could be seen that Yue was growing more brotherly like, instead of his usual brash demeanour. It seemed Yuffie had the ability to do that to people.

The enigmatic swordsman kept his distance from Yuffie when she was around Yue. Yuffie had assumed that Cloud was jealous, but Cloud didn't like Yue at all for having associations with Shinra Inc. The blonde warrior was surprised that he didn't really miss the familiar multiloquent voice of Yuffie around, now that she was too distracted with Yue. Which he found as a positive, since he was able to concentrate better, half knowing Yuffie was experienced enough to take care of herself. He wouldn't have to be distracted by her random visits, her nosebleeds or her trying to steal his furniture.

Whenever Yuffie tried to look for Cloud, she would never be able to find him. He would disappear off and converse with the rather mischievous underworld god, Hades. Whilst out and about, doing what Yue does- the black haired man had once spotted the Cloud and Hades together. Instantly a seed of mistrust was planted as Yue grew suspicious of the one-winged Cloud.

"Do you trust Cloud?"

"Spikeyhead?" The raven haired fighter burst out into fits of laughter

"Do you…?" Yue asked again, with a stern face as Yuffie paused.

"Um… I guess." She shrugged.

"Why do you hang around this Cloud guy?" Yue asked, stretching his muscles.

"To bring him back to Aerith," the ninja replied whilst sharpening her kunais.

"I know that already." This was true. Yuffie had told the story to Yue previously. "But perhaps there was a reason to why he left Tranverse Town and he has not yet fulfilled that intention."

"So?"

"Shit, you are slow. Lemme explain this carefully. If he left Tranverse Town in the first place, I doubt he wants to come back?"

"I ditto that notion," she laughed, as Yue made a face. "But that's not going to stop me."

He smirked. "Well shit, has anyone called you insane?"

"Tons of times! Insaaaanely irresistible!"

"I'm serious- you should really get checked."

"Are you mocking me?"

Being smart, he chose to avert the answer. "Well, do you know Cloud well? His interests…? Loathes?"

"Does it really matter? I just have to bring him back to Aerith." The ninja languidly replied.

"The distance between Mt Olympus and Tranverse Town isn't shit tiny. Anything could happen during that journey."

"Are you saying we'll get lost? I can read maps."

"Well I was actually implying that you shouldn't trust him- buuuut you'd probably get lost too."

The materia hunter made a face.

"You always seemed a little lost, confused..."

"I'll just pretend I didn't hear the last part," she crossed her arms, which was the cue for him to change topics.

"Do you know anything about Cloud after he left Tranverse Town? What he's done? Where he's gone? Who he's been with? He could be bad news."

"Technically, aren't you the _bad _one? You are a criminal- no offence."

"So are you."

"Must you rub it in?"

"Yep." Yuffie's brother nodded.

"Anyway Cloud volunteered to enter the tournament- so he hasn't committed anything wrong…that I know of."

"Why did he enter the tournament? Just for the fun of it? Doesn't seem the type to enjoy fighting people…" Yue was the type to pick fights. Cloud on the other hand- didn't.

"I don't really know…It might be something to do with finding _someone_…" she trailed off.

"Someone? Why doesn't he tell you anything? Why does he need to hide anything – unless its that bad?"

The ninja nodded. "That's true! Why doesn't he trust me?"

"So why do YOU trust him?"

"Good question…" Yuffie trailed off. Earlier, she didn't care whether he was dead or alive- as long as she could bring him back to see Aerith…but now…it was a different story.

"I don't trust Cloud. Have you ever wandered what he does when he's not training?"

"Yeah, I followed him a couple of times. He sees the blue flame freak. Cloud has weird fetishes…" Yuffie answered, giggling slightly.

"So you know about Hades too."

"Hades? Like the god of the underworld? That blue haired guy is a god? I always pictured the God of the Underworld to be so much cooler looking."

"Don't you see- he's making a deal with Hades and anyone who does that must be in some serious bad shit," Yue said- finally getting to the point. Yuffie hesitated to listen to her older brother.

"B-b-but-"

"But what? Why are you defending him? Just before you were complaining about how your life would be much easier if he wasn't arrogant and left Tranverse Town."

She pouted. "H-h-h-he's a good person. I know it!"

"How do you know it?"

"Instincts!" The ninja nodded. "My super ninja instincts never fail me!" .

"Were those the same ninja instincts that made you take over three years to find Cloud?"

"Are you questioning my abilities Yue?" She hissed, her tone laced with slight anger.

"You're being stubborn. I don't think your friend Aerith would want to meet her lost beloved if he turns out to be some horrible murderer."

"Aren't you one too?"

"Yes, and since I am experienced, I can tell when someone is hiding something _dark._"

"He hasn't tried to kill me- well he did _sort of _once when I tapped him on the shoulder- but that was a long time ago."

"Cloud hasn't killed you _yet_, because he would get disqualified if it wasn't in the ring. Can't you see?"

"He wouldn't…"

"Didn't you make a bet with him? We're nearing the finals and if you get paired with him- what makes you think that he wouldn't give a second thought about killing you to win. No one would volunteer if they're goal isn't worth dying for."

"He wouldn't go easy on me. I'm a strong fighter."

"Don't you get it? He made a deal with Hades and it has something to do with the tournament. If you get in his way- he'll kill you. A guy like him wouldn't honour some _stupid _bet!"

"A guy like _him?_ He's my famil-" She paused, getting a sense of dejavu. Didn't she say the exact same thing about Yue to Cloud just before.

"Family? I'm your older brother. He's some stranger who selfishly LEFT his family in Tranverse Town without thinking about how his so-called _family _felt. Personally,when I was young I was devastated when Wutai was destroyed, when I thought my family had died. So what type of person would intentionally leave his family behind?!"

Yuffie remained quiet. Perhaps she should listen to Yue. After all, he was only trying to be a caring older brother. Trust was a complicated issue. It could many different things.

To allow without fear, have confidence or faith in. Questions about trust plagued her mind. Normally, the only person she trusted was herself. But now…the answers didn't seem so easy anymore. "I see where you're coming from…" The ninja responded, feeling like she had to say something. She wouldn't be Yuffie if she didn't say anything.

"Do you know what's going on here in the colloseum- other than criminals doing their punishments and volunteers killing and beating each other for the title of champion?"

"No."

"You need to read the bulletin, the matches are up. I just want you to be careful because if you and Cloud both win your next round, you verse each other," he rolled his eyes.

"Oh I'm sooo psyched! Who am I paired against this round?" The ninja enthusiastically asked, her voice burning with fervour.

" . . .Me ."

-------**x o **x**--------**

A/N- Around 3200 words. 

Cliffhanger much?

Well Yue's purpose was only to show the subtle hints of jealously from Cloud. Also, since initially (in the first few chapters) Yuffie's personality was 'I don't care about Cloud & his past' type –I wrote Yue to give Yuffie a reason to interrogate him. It'll be a bit weird if she is suddenly interested in knowing about him & such.

I'm actually not happy with this chapter, it's a I-want-to-finish-the-story kind of chapter. I'm sorry, but I need to hit the story back towards the plot. & I'm nearly finished completing this story. whee

Thank you, I'll try to incorporate some of the feedback from the lovely reviewers of the last chapter:

Kauri-blume, highlord, The DayDreaming, MD, Lady Da Qiao of Wu, Tsuby, moonstarlight, Outfoxed & Chiisarin.

Next chapter: Yuffie vs Yue?

Please review.

x---kaikai / kaidorei / caroline 


	12. Chapter 11: confusion

**My Search for You**

By kaikai pants 

Disclaimer- same as before.

**A/N**- 29 Dec 07, I'm back from my vacation. & this chapter is a little 'dramatic' and plot-moving.

-------**x o **x**-------- **

_Next Match: Yuffie Kisaragi vs Yue Kisaragi _

-------**x o **x**-------- **

Chapter eleven: Confusion

"Ladies and gentlemen! We've finally reached the quarter finals of the Colloseum championships! Are you ready?! Well you better be cos we got some bone-crackin, action-packed blood-spillage about to happen in the arena. 4 valiant warriors will battle it out to gain the title of Champion and have the privilege of versing the prestigious demi-god… Heeeeercules!"

Talk about over-enthusiastic. The commentators have got to get credit for making everything sound like the ultra-best event in the world.

"It's the heated matches that we've all been fired up for. Ansem the heartless, famous for his battles raining with blood verses the silent yet lethal Cloud Strife. But before that, we have a thriller. Two sinful criminals from the latest Mt Olympus batches are going face to face. Yue, the bloodthirsty ex-serial killer verses everyone's favourite lethal ninja, Yuffie! This quarter-final battle not to be missed folks! You'll regret it so much that you would commit seppuku. Live tickets goes on sales now."

The broadcast rumbled throughout the colloseum walls, as the black haired siblings glanced at each other momentarily; still like the statues that adorned the stone hallways.

They both knew the same thing.

They were paired up against each other.

Yue verses Yuffie.

He gave a weak smile, before turning his back against her.

"Where ARE you going?" She proclaimed, her lips pouting with a stubborn demeanour, hands on her hips.

"Shit, isn't it obvious. I'm gonna leave." He replied, tilting his head back in her direction. But knowing his sister quite well, he decided to tell her his reason before she asked. "I can't bear to fight my own family."

"OHMYGAWD! You can read my mind! How'd yo-"

"You have a pretty simple mind." Her mind revolved around a few things. Food, sleep, shurikens & materia.

"Wahh. You're doing it again- but wait. Did you just say...Simple?!! Excuse me, my intellectuality is the very superior and sagaciously-!" She replied, trying to stand up taller, as if the slight increase in height would make her appear more 'mighty'. She didn't even know what sagacious meant, but Yue didn't bother to ask if she did.

"I'm sorry to interupt you Oh Wise Ninja, but I have to leave soon," he interupted, knowing that her ramblings would go on and on and on.

"Leave? But you're a criminal – you're imprisoned to fight here until you are defeated!"

"Like you said - I'm a criminal, like I give a shit about the rules," He smirked nonchalantly.

She couldn't help but smirk back. "So Mr Bigshot… How exactly are you going to escape hnn?"

"I have my ways. Come join me," Yuffie's brother suggested. The ninja paused in deep thought, considering the suggestion thoroughly. Escaping with her brother didn't seem like a bad idea. They wouldn't have to fight each other and they would be together as a family.

But…there was something missing.

She came to the colloseum (non-willingly) for a reason. "I'm sorry Yue. I want to…but I can't."

"You want to _stay _here?" He asked, looking at her if she was delirious. Funny thing was –people give her that look a lot. "The Colloseum is dangerous-"

"I know…but I made a bet with Cloud and I kinda need to participate in it…" She twiddled her fingers, as if she were talking to a parent.

"For Cloud aye..?" He nodded lightly, knowing that he was dealing with an adamant little brat of a sister and it was virtually impossible to convince her unless he had a mountain load of materia. "If you verse him, promise me you'll give it your all."

"Why wouldn't I? I wanna kick his ass!" She laughed loudly but stopped when she saw his serious face.

"Yuffie…" He gave a light smile and shook his head, knowing that his sister wouldn't understand what he was subtly implying. Perhaps he should get straight to the point, because jumping around corners wasn't going to get his message across to his sister. "What are the reasons for your actions? Why are you doing this 3-year-plus-journey thing? Do you do it because of Aerith- or because of yourself?"

The question resonated in her head, as she remained silent. She didn't know what to say, because honestly, who on earth asks those kind of philosophical questions anyway? Yue does; that's who. And he happens to be her older brother.

At first, her lips parted wanting to scream out that it was all for her motherly figure, Aerith. But something at the back of her heart was telling her otherwise, tugging at her, whispering something undecipherable.

He began laughing it off, as his hand scruffed up her hair playfully.

"Since I'll be escaping, I won't be able to watch over you so take care of yourself. Don't fall off any pillars and try not to steal people's chairs…or furniture…cos that's just _weird… _I'll meet up with you sometime in the future; yeah brat?" He patted her head, as she made a face.

"If you weren't leaving, I would soooo stab you with my shuriken for that…" She scowled, before giving him a soft smile. "But yeah…thank you, for everything…."

"It's okay. Just don't die."

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Me?! Die? Pfft...I'm the Great Ninja Yuffie! I'm un-fking-stoppable!"

-------**x o **x**-------- **

While bidding each other farewell, the Kisaragis were glad to be reunited with one another. However, another pair wasn't quite on such friendly grounds.

"Oh commander!" Rikku squealed in surprise, hiding the gift behind her back. "Didn't notice you come in?"

"What are you doing?" The commander asked, his fuming head about to explode like a volcano. She gulped.

"N-nothing! What is it sir?"

"The criminal…YUE FKING ESCAPED!" Seifer yelled.

Rikku's jaw dropped. "Oh gawd, oh gawd, puhh-leeze don't kill me!"

The commander huffed up, veins popping, as he tightly gripped on his gunblade. "Rikku! You were supposed to keep an eye on him!"

"Sorry commander, I was distracted. I'll find him…"

"How could you let him escape? He's dangerous!"

The female soldier's blue eyes became watery, as she fought to hold the tears in. "I'm sorry."

"Yue is a serial killer! The innocent civilians-"

"He no longer works for Shinra Inc. There is no reason for him to kill."

"He is a criminal! They are no different from despicable creatures!"

"Yue is a brother! He escaped so he wouldn't have to hurt his sister, Yuffie! If I was in his position, I would have done anything for nothing to happen to Roxas." Most siblings often quarreled. In fact, most did, but sometimes the true bond of blood was something that should be cherished. It was a relationship that Rikku could understand.

"Roxas is a soldier. His duty is to serve. It would be a sacrifice for the greater good," Seifer snapped stoically.

"How could you speak so calmly about sacrificing a life?! Someone as heartless as you wouldn't understand what its like to lose someone you treasure!" The blonde woman snapped, her normally cheerful cat-like emeralds on the verge of tears. Rikku was the epitome of the happy-go-lucky attitude, but seeing her bitterly glare at him made Seifer's stomach churn.

Ignoring the foreign emotions permeating in his brain, he glared firmly back at her. "You are a soldier. No matter what circumstance, there is nothing more important than following orders and maintain the stability of the colloseum! If your job meant that a hundred people had to die, you must deliver your order."

"I know, I may not be a great soldier like my brother, or a highly ranked one like you. But I became a soldier because I believed it was a job to protect people."

"It seems you are not cut out to be a soldier if you cannot stand to see people hurt."

"At least I don't enjoy seeing people hurt. How could you stand up for this brutal battle system- whether they be criminals or not, it is sickening to see the satisfaction of the audience when they watch people die in front of their eyes! Perhaps you have arrested many criminals, done great things in the name of justice. I use to respect you! But seeing you now, you're no better than the monsters you loathe!" Rikku stormed out the room, her golden hair reminiscent of thunder, as she knocked over the gift she held behind her back out of rage.

The commander stood there, spotting the gift tip over, its contents spilling on the marble floor. It was a cup of his favourite sea salt ice cream, with a thank you note addressed to him.

Seifer just stood still, her sharp words shooting in his brain, as he just watched the sugary cream spread across the floor and for some reason, he felt a part of him was slipping away with each drop of ice cream melting on the marble.

-------**x o **x**-------- **

A few hours later, Yuffie Kisaragi was announced as the victor since Yue escaped. However, the public was told that her brother had been accidentally killed during training to cover up for his disappearance.

The ninja had decided to visit Cloud after his close win against Ansem.

"BOOO!" Yuffie playfully glomped him from behind, her arms wrapped around his red caped-neck.

"I would have killed you if I weren't tired," the blonde swordsman sighed in irritation. "Give me a warning before you do that."

"Anything for you sir Cloud of Strife," she sneered in a mocking tone.

He raised his brow, wandering how she could be so bubbly. "…" He scratched the back of his head, thinking of the correct words to say to her. "I'm sorry about Yue…"

She burst out laughing, as Cloud was thrown into a more confused state. "Oh! You don't know about it do you? He escaped. The commentators lied about him dying."

He nodded, that explained her strange behavior. "I see…" The blonde murmured, noticing that after Yue left, Yuffie had come to talk to him.

"Well congratulations buddy!" The black-haired girl patted him on the back, only to be met with a pile of sweat and blood as she made a disgusted face.

"As you can see I need to clean up…" Cloud responded moving away from her. His body scarred, stained with blood, and smelling of sweat. His defeat of Ansem was difficult and all he wanted to do was return to his room (which _coincidentally_ happened to be next to Yuffie's) and wash up.

Though a certain ninja wasn't so understanding and was obstinate to pry a little information from her blonde sword-wielding buddy. "Here I am, the Great Ninja Yuffie- actually trying to get to know you, but you trying to blow me off! I'm deeply offended."

"Such a persistent brat…" He sighed inwardly, it looked like she wasn't going to let him get away that easily. "Well Miss _Great Ninja_, I have more important-"

"So I guess you'd rather chat to your buddy Hades than me hnn??!!" Oh, she had hit a nerve alright.

"Is that what this is about? Is that why you always 'drop by' my room? To check up on me?"

"No, I never cared before about your little rendezvous with him."

"And why do you suddenly _care_?"

"B-B-Because!" She stammered.

"Why don't you go concentrate on training for your next battle instead of interrogating me?"

"Because my next match is against you Cloud," she paused, her grey eyes staring intensely into his. "And I wanna know if your deal with Hades is more important than reuniting you with Aerith."

They both clearly remembered the deal that Yuffie and Cloud made. If she won, Cloud would come back with her to Tranverse Town but if he won, she would leave him be forever. 

Cloud remained silent for a few seconds, as he averted his eyes from her vehement gaze. Yuffie could be quite adamant when she wanted to. "You wanna know why I work for Hades?"

"No shit Sherlock. Spill it."

"I need to find a sergeant who worked for Shinra Inc, the same company that your brother use to work for. This man…Sephiroth…he killed my parents. If I bring Hercules' head to Hades, he will deliver me to find Sephiroth," he replied, his voice laced with vehement poison as he repeated Sephiroth's name.

"…Fair enough," Yuffie nodded in a serious fashion, as she turned around to walk away. Before she left from his sight, she twirled around and flashed him her trademark grin. "May the best person win."

She left to her room to train and the two haven't communicated with each other since.

-------**x o **x**-------- **

A few days later, it was the day of the semi-finals. During that time, Yuffie had trained hard in her pursuit to fulfill the promise she made to her dear friend Aerith. Cloud's mind was set on completing his vengeance upon Sephiroth.

He obdurately locked his mind into winning. Yuffie…who was she to him?

She was just a girl that he used to know when he was young. A part of his childhood memory that he had long forgotten. Cloud sat in the backroom of the colloseum battleground with a calm façade, putting on his armour as Roxas was behind on patrol. Then Rikku in her myriad of colours rushed past the both of them, red puffy eyed.

"I think she's upset at Seifer for getting angry at letting Yue escape," Roxas commented on her sister's behavior, wandering whether to follow and comfort her.

The red-cloaked Cloud, didn't respond however. He didn't care about the troubles of the overly amiable blonde girl. Though something Roxas said did catch his attention. "Yue escaped…why didn't Yuffie go with him?" It was intriguing indeed. Cloud didn't quite comprehend what would be more important than escaping the colloseum with her long-lost brother.

"Isn't it obvious?" The green-eyed soldier gave a friendly smirk, as Cloud narrowed his eyes. "Well Strife, I'll give you a hint. Ever wonder why Yuffie traveled to Mt Olympus in the first place?"

-------**x o **x**-------- **

_Ahh_…she would be competing against Cloud Strife. Most competitors would be fearful because he was a strong and mighty fighter. He had defeated Ansem, the heartless. Yuffie on the other hand would not be intimidated by him.

Why?

Need you ask the question?

She was Great Ninja Yuffie… the _er_…great? That's why!

She had been looking forward to competing against Cloud ever since she laid eyes on his red cape, armour and gigantic buster sword! Oh perhaps not the sword part. The massive sword kinda scared her a little…okay, more like A LOT. But she wasn't nervous about her upcoming battle because of his power and skill, but because it was Cloud.

Cloud Strife.

The man that she had been searching for over three years.

The man that she had always wished to meet.

The man that she had finally met.

Before she met him, she was angry at him for making her consume her precious time just to find him. She wanted to beat him up to a pulp for making her take such a seemingly pointless cause.

Yet, second thoughts crept into her mind. She had not thought about why he left Tranverse Town at all. He had spent much more time, heck – he left them, his family, in order to find Sephiroth. With his goal being so close to him, how would he feel if Yuffie took it away from him. Would he hate her? Even though, she knew that his means to achieve the goal was wrong, could she handle it if he hated her?

It was wrong to take a good person's life in a pursuit for revenge.

She knew it was wrong. She was positive he knew it was wrong too. Killing Hercules to find Sephiroth and then kill Sephiroth, was no better than what Sephiroth had done to Cloud's parents in the first place. She had to stop Cloud from doing such an act!

As she practiced swinging her giant Conformer (shuriken), she pondered whether she had the will to defeat him.

If he were anyone else- she would have no second thoughts. It was the same she felt towards Yue. She would be devastated to hurt Yue.

Biting her lip, she didn't know why confusion plagued her. She was doing this for Aerith…right?

Since when did she care about other people's feelings? It was normal for her to have second thoughts about hurting Yue because he was her brother.

But Cloud was just a stranger a month ago. She didn't know what his favourite colour was, what food he liked, his hobbies –if he even had one. Perhaps cleaning that massive buster sword of his was his favourite hobby.

She sighed, confusing things were just too…hard to comprehend. Though sometimes things are confusing because the reality in your mind does not meet the reality in your heart. Roxas told her that thinking too much would give her wrinkles.

It was true: thinking too much hurt.

Thinking about Aerith was calming.

Thinking about Leon was amusing.

Thinking about Yue was reassuring.

Thinking about Rikku and Roxas brought a smile.

Though, thinking about Cloud… was a whole different story.

Like a story that was utterly confusing, with feint text and missing pages.

Why was Cloud so mysterious yet entrancing?

There was something missing that she couldn't put her finger to.

Maybe she should listen to her older brother.

Like Yue had said, Cloud had left Tranverse Town behind.

He had left Aerith behind.

Shouldn't he be the one to come back to Aerith?

She screamed with frustration before she took deep breaths.

When in doubt...do the easiest method with ninja-flair.

She would be ready-

Heck- Yuffie Kisaragi was on _fiiiii-yah!_ Because she was Yuffie Kisaragi and she was pumped up to whoop spikey's ass and drag him back to Tranverse Town!

She tightened her boots as she equipped her armoured gear around her lithe body. She stood up bravely, hearing the announcer's words thunder from the speakers…

"Welcome the two competitors. Cloud Strife and Yuffie Kisaragi!"

-------**x o **x**-------- **

**A/N**- Around 3000 words.

Oh, its one of those I wanna-finish-the-story-kinda-chapter lol. I tried to do seifer x rikku, but I think I failed. At least I tried –_sweatdrop- _ Hope you enjoyed! Merry xmas & happy new year!

MUCH LOVE to the feedback from the last chapter: SolticeKPX, Mystikoorime, MD, The DayDreaming, kauri-blume, Lady Da Qiao of Wu, Tsuby, NightmareShinigami & moonstarlight

Please donate feedback & reviews.

x---kaikai / kaidorei / caroline


	13. Chapter 12: recollections

**My Search for You  
**by kaikai pants

Disclaimer- same as before.

4 feb 08 **A/N**- another "attempt" of a fight scene ahead. I had a quick glance at this, so sorry for the errors.

-------**x o **x**--------**

"_Yue escaped…why didn't Yuffie go with him_?"

"_Isn't it obvious?_ …_ Well Strife, I'll give you a hint. Ever wonder why Yuffie traveled to Mt Olympus in the first place?"_

-------**x o **x**--------  
**

**Chapter twelve**: Recollections

"_Stay still_ _Cloud!" the brunette insisted, gazing at him with those pair of beautiful emerald eyes; jade pearls radiating with such purity, such bliss with loving care. It was as if she actually cared about him. _

_Her name was Aerith Gainsborough. _

"_It's just a scratch," the blonde boy shrugged it off, making a face. "I'm fine."_

"_You could get an infection," Aerith said with concern, as he diverted his eyes from her out of stubbornness knowing that it was futile to argue. Besides, he could never argue with her. It was something about that serene aura she held, as its warmth would appease him whenever she grew near him._

"_Don't be so reckless in training okay?" She said, as Cloud complied with a nod. Taking out a band aid, she placed it gently on his graze, as his blue eyes trailed to her placid face. The gorgeous smile on her face and the way her curls of warm chocolate hair bounced from her shoulders as she leaned down to apply the band aid on his knee._

_He couldn't help but be fixated in awe. _

"_There. All done." Aerith gave a bright smile, returning her gaze to his as her eyes met his and her smile was suddenly replaced with one of worry. "What's wrong? Does it still hurt?" _

_He was a little confused at first, but assumed she was just concerned about his wellbeing. "No. I'm fine. I can't even feel that it was even there," He put on a reassuring smile, seeing her look unconvinced. _

"_Then… why are you crying?" Her finger reached out caressing the tear away from widened eyes. _

_He was stunned, as he felt a cool drop of liquid unconsciously crawl down his cheek. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he was completely puzzled to why he was crying at all._

"_I don't know…" He trailed off, his senses too discombobulated to make an excuse for his tears. Most guys would have claimed that dust got in their eyes, but his thoughts were thrown everywhere. _

_Abruptly, Aerith wrapped her arms around him in solace, resting her chin on his head. The warmth felt oddly familiar, like something, or someone that he had unknowingly missed. He remained motionless, cherishing each tender stroke across his back, drifting into a docile stupor. "I'm sorry. It still hurts doesn't it?" _

_Her gentle voice knocked him out of his trance, as Cloud shook his head. "No, it doesn't hurt at all." _

"_Not your wound…but here." Her finger pointed to his __**heart**_

-------**x o **x**--------**

It was strange how a memory could reanimate in his head at the most random time within his head.

Aerith's benignity had reminded him of his mother. And it was his mother who had told him to: _fight for what you believed in._

Cloud Strife had adopted it as his own personal motto.

Though now, he had always thought about it; thought about whether he was doing the right thing. Was he wrong in wanting to put Sephiroth, that brutal murderer to his place?

Something at the back of his mind kept pushing him forward, while something else inside some lost forgotten area was telling him otherwise.

This was the path he had chosen and he knew of its consequences ever since he turned his back and walked out from Tranverse Town and said goodbye to Aerith on that fateful night.

Perhaps he wasn't fully aware of the obstacles on his particular journey. After all, he was restless 9 and a half (because at that time, the whole half made a huge difference) years old when he made the decision to leave Tranverse Town.

But not just to leavethat place; but the _people _who had congregated together; all group of people bonded together because they had no home- or they had lost their home.

All young, timid, scared.  
Thinking back on the past, made him feel old and _corrupted. _

But was he missing those naïve times?  
Sparring with Leon, talking with Aerith, learning from Merlin and _Yuffie_…

Conjecturing a little clearly, he realized that he never really _talked _to her much. Aside from when Aerith asked him to baby-sit her, recollections of Yuffie and him alone together were rather limited.

That was the point, when Cloud felt a little saddened, as his eyes met Yuffie's in an intense gaze from two opposing ends of the Coliseum battleground. Her raven locks wildly sweeping in the wind, tightening her trademark headband as her determined stare never phased.

He stood coolly, mako-enhanced eyes masking his emotions like a sheer still mirror, as the shards of sand skidded past him aesthetically. His gloved hand tightened against the hilt of his sword, like he was born with it. It reassured him, his motivation to fight ignited within him, as he forced himself to focus his mind upon one direction...

Winning.

For their personal goals, _they_ would **fight**.  
One for **revenge**; one for _HOPE_.

For his parents…or for Aerith.

From the crowd's perspective, Cloud and Yuffie were like puppets forced together in front of an audience, screaming for them to tear each other into bits. They had no idea of what personal details the two shared nor did they care.

Comparing the stature of the two opponents, most bets were on Cloud to win.

His broad shoulders a musculature reiterated his overwhelming strength, insinuating the fact that he probably visited the gym several times a day. Yuffie on the other hand? Yeahh, so what if she skipped a few days, being too lazy to wake up. Or even those days that she felt like binge eating. No, not alcohol but food. Because Yuffie believed alcohol would end up rotting her livers and she liked her liver very much. Albeit that massive shuriken like a ferris wheel with spikes she wielded was not something to be underestimated.

Though Hades was confident that the result would be Cloud being the victor.

-------**x o **x**--------**

_Two figures stood together behind the shadows of the pillars of the unused gardens of the Coliseum. The pair was not fond of one another but was only meeting out of mutual agreement. _

"_Strife, remember as a volunteered participant like yourself the rules state that you __must __kill all your competitors. Don't make your previous efforts and mine come to waste. It was quite troublesome finding Sephiroth. If not, you will not be able to advance and thus, our little contract will be invalidated," Hades' voice hissed, his blue flame like a wisp. _

"_Understood," Cloud responded in a flat tone. _

"_That includes your next opponent. Don't hesitate to make it entertaining. Though make sure you __**kill**__ her with no mercy."_

-------**x o **x**--------  
**

The blue haired god of the underworld sat in his VIP spot in the Coliseum, his spindle-like claws clasping together in anticipation at the scene about to play in front of him. His lips swayed over his cocktail, as he was caught in the moment of the currents of pressed wine rivers that traveled from his goblet spiraling down his throat. Hades glanced briefly at Hercules in his throne, as the evil god could taste the bitter sweet satisfaction about to hit on his serpent-like tongue.

The god turned his view back to the battleground, and he was taken aback when he saw those eyes. A pair of eyes with a vehement shade of a tumultuous storm glaring back at him. Choking on his wine, Hades couldn't believe the sheer hatred that permeated in his direction.

"Laaaddiiiiiies and gentlemmmmmmmen. Are you reaaaaaaaady?" Phil, the goat-like announcer disseminated in undying excitement, as the audience screamed wildly in response that its tremours could probably be heard from all the way in the oceanic world of Atlantis.

"So the moment that everyone's been waiting for! Let the semi finals…

YUFFIE KISARAGI VERSES CLOUD STRIKE BEGIN!"

Yuffie wanted to attack first, but for some reason her legs didn't want to move. It was as if some mysterious thing within her didn't want to fight Cloud.

In contrast, he didn't have the patience to wait for her to make her move. He wanted to get it over and done with. It had been too long and he wanted to get his main objective was so close, within grasp. All he had to do was defeat her and Hercules.

Hastily, he charged at her with blows, as the ninja instinctively evaded each attack with finesse. They exchanged blows like a dance, both having their advances.

Leaping to the side, the ninja dexterously thrust a shower of shurikens down his direction.

Automatically, Cloud tracked the movements of each angles of trajectory that the shurikens took and concluded that they couldn't be easily evaded. Quickly, he shielded the attack by spinning his buster sword in an umbrella motion.

"Is that all you got _Great Ninja Yuffie_?" He smirked in a mocking tone, as if he was only toying with her.

Rage ripped through her like a volcano. "You _wish_!" She quickened her pace, her large shuriken weapon slicing through the air, as he evaded the hasty attack.

The swordsman ripped his fist through the air, attempting to strike the ninja. By inches, she circumvented the deathblow by ducking into a backward somersault. She quickly came out of her roll as she neared the opposing wall beneath the audience's stands.

Being a swift ninja, she altered the angle of her path so that her booted feet raced up the wall (defying gravity), as her ebony locks tossed wildly. She flipped sideways in fluid motion with aptitude, landing on her feet as the audience went crazy at the sight.

From behind, her Conformer boomeranged back behind Cloud, as he easily avoided it. Another ray of kunais came flying in his direction, as he used his left leg to spring himself out of the way. Using this moment as an advantage, Yuffie had maneuvered like lightning sending a powerful kick towards his chest.

His body flung backwards, colliding harshly against the wall. He was so confident in his abilities that shock of getting hit tremoured in his body.

Picking himself up quickly, he knew he was mistaken to underestimate the Great Ninja Yuffie. But despite her massive ego, Yuffie knew that Cloud was probably a stronger (if not better) fighter than her, and only strategy and agility would be her winning ticket.

Though despite how much her ego tried to encourage her that she could win, the moment that Cloud heaved his heavy sword from his shoulders, her determination had immediately deteriorated. The giant sword seemed even more dauntingly huge than before. Heck, was that even possible?

Seeing was believing and she knew that her eyes must have been lying to her. Wiping his lip, he quickly blew the golden strands away from his vision but to her, it felt like everything was playing in slow-motion. She realized that all this time, he was just playing around with her like some kid. He hadn't even drawn his weapon until now.

Gulping, she tried to mitigate the nerves within her stomach, but she felt like butterflies were raving on crack within her stomach.

He was the master of this intimidating stance, and one would almost pity Yuffie for being his opponent.

Though the crowd showed no mercy as they _paid _to be entertained by this.

Like sadists, they _enjoyed _watching people fight and kill each other.

And she finally understood what Rikku had warned her about. At the time, Yuffie was being so carefree and light-heartedly shook off what the blonde female soldier had told her. It was no different from aslaughterhouse.

Blood. It was everywhere. It covered the sandy floor of the battleground. Even though, she couldn't see its crimson hue, she knew it was there.

Previous competitors, Xigbar, Rude, Chameleon, Ansem…many more. All dead…here…She hadn't chatter to most of them, but she had a glimpse of their faces before. She didn't know that when she saw them, it would be their last day.

Life…death… An endless cycle…

Plagued by his parent's death, was this the world that Cloud Strife had lived in?

Her knees grew weak in a daze, unable to avoid getting hit by his sword, as she couldn't believe the red coloured chain of blots on her hands.

Her _own _blood.

And then she saw _it. _

After gathering up the courage to look up at him, she saw him whip away the sword from its bandaged sheath, as the blood smeared white cloth fluttered in the air. The clamorous sound of the audience drowned out, as her stormy eyes dilated in fear.

In its unsheathed form, she knew that one graze from it could cut her finger off.

She knew then, that despite all her over exaggerated fanfaronade, proclaiming herself as the number one Ninja, she knew that she was by no means invincible. Perhaps, she had always known but never liked to admit.

In front of her, stood Cloud Strife, the fearsome one-winged swordsman lifting up his sword up in suspense.

The intensity and liquid movements of his swordsmanship was of a demon. It seemed like a millisecond as the one-winged man rushed towards Yuffie, blade first.

Previously, she was fine with risking her life for her mission, but there were things she wanted to say that she couldn't say.

Was her life so meaningless? It hovered about her like a cage, an ethereal thing that threatened with each passing day to flatten her, to _crush _her.

-------**x o **x**--------**

_  
A wise person once said you can tell a lot about a person by their room. This case was none the different. _

_Long tendrils of chocolate hair like silk spiraled down her pink dress, as the sickly pale girl lay in her bed. Pink walls, a vanity table with its mirror shattered into shards of distorted glass; reflecting the distressed state of the owner of the bedroom. _

_Her beautiful emerald eyes had faded into a dusty jade; its shimmering warmth dilapidated like an old blunt knife. _

_In contrast, a bouquet of white lilies seemed be the only living thing in the bedroom, sitting serenely inside its vase, capturing the essence of bliss within its vitreous container. _

_The teenage girl –perky as ever- with hair so black as raven peered inside._

_The brunette lady was lying in bed, sweat beads dotted on her porcelain face (so fragile- that it looked like it was about to crack) as she tossed and turned underneath her pink sheets. _

"_Aerith…what's wrong?" The ninja rushed to her friend's side, concern etched in her face. _

_Fluttering her eyes abruptly, the brunette woke up from her nightmare, as her fingers unconsciously dug sharply into the Young Yuffie's shoulders. Her long brown hair was disheveled, as, Aerith began shook Yuffie madly in a distorted fashion. _

"_Please…" Aerith began, her bereaved green eyes desperately searching Yuffie's face.  
"__**Please save Cloud…**__"_

-------**x o **x**--------**

Memories often triggered something within people. Yuffie was no different, as the pace of her heart slowed into a calm rhythm.

She couldn't panic. Yuffie knew that. Aerith wouldn't want her to. Neither would Rikku, Squall, Roxas or Yue. She had people she wanted to see, things she wanted to do, someone she wanted to embrace.

Her adrenaline soothed her fears, sobering her will to survive.

Reality quickly resumed its normal speed for her, as if someone pressed the fast forward button on her perception's video player.

Something kicked within her, causing her adept reflexes to miss Cloud's fatal blow by a hair's thickness.

Cloud stuttered lightly, as a foreign wave of relief swept him when she avoided his strike.

Gathering his composure, Cloud knew that he had to end it quickly. Hastily, he continued to attack like a predator, as she struggled to dodge his strikes.

Yuffie would use every last molecule of oxygen to fight for what she believed in, her resolve was unstoppable. With each hit he gave her, she stood back up, bruises etched upon her skin.

"Resign, you can't take it anymore," Cloud said, wiping the sweat from his neck.

"Ha… ha… ha! Sorry, giving up isn't in my vocabulary," Yuffie grinned, in between breaths.

Even though Hades was unaware of what the two fighters were conversing about, he was cheering for Cloud to finish her off.

"Why do you persist?" Cloud asked, readying his sword in an offensive stance.

"You said it yourself. I'm a persistent brat remember!" She frivolously stuck out her tongue, as he was utterly stunned that she had thrown his own words back at him. Though, perhaps he was more surprised that she had actually listened to what he had said. He had always assumed that words entered one ear and went out the other.

Yuffie Kisaragi.  
She may be a brat.  
She may be stubborn, annoying & overly persistent brat.  
But she's a stubborn, annoying & overly persistent brat with a pure heart.

Despite that she had stalked, annoyed, followed him around for three year and stole his chair from his room, Cloud Strife had _actually_ glad that he had met that capricious ninja by the name of Yuffie Kisaragi.

"Is your promise to Aerith truly worth your life?" He found himself asking, still pondering why on earth he didn't dive his sword through her body yet. _What was with all this idle chat?_ He knew that he was delaying it, stalling for the time when he would win.

"My promise to Aerith is precious…" Gathering her breath, her eyes met his fiercely. Aerith wanted her to save Cloud, save him from his insane quest for revenge. Consumed with guilt, the brunette blamed herself for him leaving. "And I will use _every_ ounce of my energy to stop you from finishing that deal with Hades! Aerith wouldn't want – HELL, **I** don't want you doing something stupid that you'll regret you CHOCOBOHEAD!"

Mentioning Hades' name activated Cloud's will to kill Sephiroth, as a menace look appeared on the blonde's face. "No, I will make **you** regret coming here!!!"

They charged fiercely at one another, weapons armed in their hands, surrounded by the untamed chants of a bloodthirsty audience...

For their personal goals, _they_ would **fight**.  
One for **revenge**; one for _HOPE_.

-------**x o **x**--------**

**A/N**- Around 3000 words.

OMiiiGAWSH. Cliffhanger much lol? I was gonna finish the whole fight, but yeahh, writing it all would take me forever so I decided to end this chapter here. This chapter was a little more serious than previous chapters, I'm sorry for the regular changes of moods with each chapter (which is due to my random long periods of updating).

& the story is going to be finished in at _least_ two chapters. I'm excited that I'm going to finish my first chaptered-story.

Oh, don't hesitate to write clouffies for the CLOUFFOLUTION!

Reviews & your feedback would be nice

x---kaikai / kaidorei / caroline


	14. Chapter 13: snapshot

**My Search for You  
**By kaikai pants

A/N- 6 may 08. It's been a while since I last updated. But it's a long chapter to make up for it, another double chapter within one.

--x o x--

_They charged fiercely at one another,  
__Weapons armed in their hands,  
__Surrounded by the untamed chants  
__of a bloodthirsty audience..._

--x o x--

Did it hurt, when I walked away?

**Chapter thirteen:** S N A P S H O T S

Snapshot o1: Nine Years ago.

He walked past the garden of white lilies.  
Its trumpets of pure white, illuminated in the moonlight like frosty clouds, as light as snow floating adrift in a sea of dark green, emanating waves of a sweet aroma.  
A capture of a picturesque scene.  
But from a one-moment snapshot, you could not feel the air that night. It was morbidly stale, wreathed in a miasma of an ominous fog.  
Even under the shade of the giant Oak tree, a tree where tourists took candid photos flicking up their cheesy grins and peace signs. Though it didn't bring him any comfort that night. Spindle-like yet intriguing shadows of cloudy proportions clung to the branches of the Oak tree, like lurking ethereal ghosts, all with its own unique story, its own memory to share.

There were few people out on that night; none of them bothered each other as they all scurried along with their own intent and purpose. However one young mind was adamantly set on the pathway out of the town, as his hand clutched upon the metal hilt of his gigantic sword. His blue eyes briefly gazed at the trunk of the tree, remembering how Merlin had once told him that the tree was planted by the founding fathers of Tranverse Town. Cracks littered the lines of its trunk, on one of its thick branches was a few words carved on its exterior: '_Cloud S was here.'_

He took one last look at the memento before he began to tread away, until a hand reached caught his wrist. The blonde boy stopped in his tracks. He knew who it was. Just the touch of her gentle small fingers tightening around his waist, pulling him closer to her was enough to tell.

"Cloud…" It was Aerith's voice, gentle, frail, shaky.

His mako-enhanced eyes didn't dare look back, his gaze fixated on the road ahead, as if the lanky lamp posts had irradiated steps for him to follow.

"Please…stay," she pleaded, her arms came closer to him, wrapping around his back from behind. Her head buried his back; he could feel her warm breath upon him, her chocolate brown curls spilling before her face, her heart thumping and the drops of tears wetting his shirt.

Cloud still didn't turn back. His hand was firmly on the cool steel of the hilt of his sword, detaching his emotions from himself. fout for his, but it was to no avail. Her grasp was left empty with only the cool touch of the nightly breeze.

"Cloud you don't have to leave."

No answer.

"Will you come back?"

No answer.

"Don't you like Tranverse Town?"

No answer.

"Don't you want to stay with us? With Squall, with Yuffie, with Merlin…with…me…"

No answer.

"Are you going to stay silent while you just leave us?" Her voice was exasperated, desperate slightly hoarse from all the sobbing.

No answer.

"If you accomplish whatever it is you do, will your pain stop?"

"Yes… it will."

The girl nodded slowly; magnanimous as always, as her grasp around his body weakened. "I'll…miss you Cloud," she murmured weakly, falling back away as he moved forward, his figure slowly disappearing into the darkness, leaving a sobbing girl crouching amongst the field of lilies, her solemn tears melting into the air with nothing but the wind to comfort her sorrow.

A gonging. A long, euphonic bellow of chimes and bells from the clock tower, as a small swarm of leaves rushed past with the wind, whimsically carrying four unspoken words to her…

_… I'll miss you too._

--x o x--

Snapshot o2: Three and a half years ago.

She was always high up in the sky. Well not literally, but she was in lofty places, where she could observe everyone even though she was of a short stature. Often on rooftops, tree branches, scoping the carefree town, making potions with Merlin, annoying Leon, stalking randoms and marking anybody rather slow as targets for her ninja skills to 'train' on. She called it 'training'. We all know what she really meant, especially Leon.

Tranverse Town was getting rather boring and she was collecting far too many restraining orders from harassing people within the past month. Aerith was still bedridden and Yuffie had found herself doing the same things all the time. Her humour was becoming sardonic, her once loud laughter growing sour, her smile morphing into an empty-hearted gesture.

The mellifluous fragrance of lilies was keeping her quiet, the young ninja this time had found herself hung upside down like a bat; her legs whipped against a branch of an Oak tree, her wander lusting eyes aimlessly cast into the distance. Something in her was itching underneath her skin; it had been there for a while. But it didn't bother her as much as now, but she felt invisible shackles tying her down, as if specters had grabbed her wrists trapping her within its prison of gelid digits. Releasing a frustrated sigh, she hurled herself right side up, sweeping her short kohl bangs away from her face. This was when she spotted something engraved into the surface of the branch she was sitting on.

The following week, she walked past the Great Oak tree and departed Tranverse Town. When she would return was a question.

Though the insouciant young girl left something carved into the Oak tree's branch…

'…_Cloud S & Yuffie K was here. '_

--x o x--

Snapshot o3: Two weeks before the finals

It was one of those non-eventual days, a few weeks before the final showdown between Cloud and Yuffie. Days that were somewhat carefree. Some training. Rest. More training. Eat. Train some more. Shower. And you kind of got the picture. An ordinary scheduled cycle playing out in motion. But Cloud Strife, the powerful warrior found this ordinary scheduled cycle rather a bit too peaceful, especially since throughout his whole day, he had not run into that frivolous ninja by the name of Yuffie Kisaragi.

This was strange, very peculiar in fact as she would at least pop out of no where. At least once (if not twice). It'd usually go somewhere on the lines where he would hear her (god damn) annoying voice yelling out to him to wait up and then he'd just ignore her and smugly leave anyway being the cold jack ass he was. But not now.

He hadn't seen her today and he didn't know why the hell the harmony from being Yuffie-free was irritating him so. It was supposed to be relaxing, a state of solace without her, yet here he was… Tense, on edge, his senses extra advertent on any sounds his ears might pick up. Almost like it was too good to be true. Paranoia at its worse.

He found himself that day randomly strolling through the Colloseum corridors, ancient stone statues stood faithfully, staring at him from beneath cool marble lids into the finite space and infinite shadows. Clad in his armour, he had been expecting her to erratically appear of the blue (like she always did) and _bless_ him with her presence yet he was mistaken. The raven-haired marauder was no where in sight. She had not come to him like she always had and it had got him all silently pensive.

Where was she now? Maybe she could be with Yue, Rikku or Roxas. Maybe she was troubling someone else rather than him? The blonde shouldn't get too optimistic with that last question.

After abnegating and mentally beating himself up for being so utterly pathetic, he retired back to his quarters where he thought he might celebrate not being bothered by the overly-amiable ninja. Stretching his tired arms, perhaps it was time for Cloud to have a long needed (and uninterrupted) nap after all that hard training.

And then, that was when his door bell rang.

"Yuffie?" He staggered a little, after he opened his door to find the raven-haired ninja, smiling and all, cutely standing outside wanting to see him.

"Cloud?"

"You sound surprised. Were you expecting someone else to answer my door?"

Blunt as always, she noted with a smirk. "Oh, it was just that you usually don't answer the door, let alone having the ability to actually _open_ it."

"That's because upon this certain occasion I had to actually open the door to confirm that my eyes weren't playing tricks on me because you actually _knocked_ first (like a normal person) instead of picking the lock," he retorted in a subtle disparaging tone.

"Well I would knock on the door but you rudely ignore it anyway, and pretend you're not in or that you're sleeping. Sometimes I even see you peering through the door hole and I can even hear you groan from behind the door! Take that!"

He shrugged lightly. "You're right."

"You actually…_agree_ with me?" Yuffie cleared out her ears, to verify she wasn't hearing things.

"Yeah, why did I open the door in the first place?" He closed the door on her, as she found herself once again glaring at the sturdy pine surface of his door in her face.

She glowered, pushing the door open and followed him inside, hands on hips. "Hey! At least be a gentleman and ask me to come in?"

"Well you are already _in_ my quarters aren't you?" The raven-haired ninja blinked, realizing that he was in fact correct. Yuffie was already within the confinements of his room after she had unconsciously barged through his door in an infuriated attempt to follow and lecture him about how it was common courtesy that a lady like herself shouldn't have to wait outside to be invited into his room.

"Point proven." She huffed slightly, staring daggers at him for having somefthing over her. "BUT tech-ni-cal-ly I, the lovely Yuffie is a guest of honour in your place; you should be serving me. Like offer me tea and cookies or something. Gees, have you been living under a rock?"

"You came here because… you want …_me_ to serve you…tea…and cookies?"

"Well…no. But cookies would be nice." Yuffie sulked, averting her eyes to the closed curtains. They remained quiet, as she caught him staring at her oddly. "What?" She snapped.

"You can't have my curtains…" He began. "Nor my chairs, because you stole the last one."

"And that was a very good chair indeed," she goofily grinned, nodding in amusement. "Hey wait! What type of person do you think I am? I'm not some furniture freak! It just so happens that that particular chair was _really_ comfy and my butt grew quite fond of it. Besides, materia is more my thing."

"So…Why _are_ you here?" Straight to the point, as always.

Now didn't this look familiar? Yuffie and Cloud both in his room. Again. Similar situation. Like usual, his curtains were closed, but his room was now missing a chair. Plus unlike last time, it wasn't as if she popped inside his room out of the blue after his shower.

This time, _he_ had let her in. Wait- actually, she let herself in. He just accidentally left the door unlocked behind him when he closed it on her so she didn't have to pick at it. Cloud narrowed his mako-enhanced eyes and couldn't wave off the odd sense of déjà vu, as here he was (again), trying to figure out why the hell was she in his room…uninvited?

Couldn't she annoy some other poor guy? Like her older brother Yue. Even though Cloud didn't particularly trust the guy, Yue did relieve him of Yuffie...for a while.

"Can't your fellow friendly next-door neighbour swing by for a quick chat, y'know…just to say hello?" She replied.

He blinked. "Hello." Yuffie face palmed.

She was about to retort and chide at him as if he was some retarded person learning how to communicate normally to people, but that would cause him to refrain with conversing with her. Thus, that was the opposite of what Yuffie was trying to accomplish.

Meanwhile, the blonde swordsman still gave her that look. The I-want-you-to-leave NOW kind of look. She got it a lot.

Seriously, things he couldn't comprehend tugged at the back of his mind. Why was she here? In his room out of all the other rooms she could have gotten herself into? Did she have nothing better to do in her spare time? Shouldn't she be training for the upcoming battles?

Did she just like to be in his company? Probably not. He was a rather dull person. So he didn't buy the whole 'I just came to have a chat' bullshit excuse she came up with when she dropped by his room. Anyway, if she just wanted to confabulate with him, why here? Why in his dull boring, yet exquisite quarters? Why not in the corridors, the gardens or the training facilities? They were more spacious, more scenic. His room could use a little something called: sunlight. There was nothing particularly to do in his dorm. All he did was sleep, clean and rebandage his buster sword.

Nothing interesting to do in his room. But wait! What do girls Yuffie's age- how old was she anyway? She had told him once in one of her random drabbles. He didn't really pay attention, but he remembered noting that she looked younger than her age. He wasn't really familiar with social activities, but when he asked himself: what do girls want when they come to a guy's room (with a bed or shower)?

The likely answer was…

Sex. Did she? Really? Yuffie? Was it even possible? She was a girl. And he was a guy. Mother nature made it possible so they could. Then again, there were people of the same gender who did those sort of things together so he shouldn't stereotype. And they were both of legal age so it was possible.

There were plenty of places it could happen on. The bed. The shower. If he lifted her up and shoved those items off, then they could on the table. And don't forget the wall. His blue eyes warily jumped from each place, his pulse beating fast. Hard. Strong.

He couldn't believe he was thinking these kind of things! But, it wasn't like _he_ was the one who wanted to. He wasn't ready to jump into that sort of thing- heck, he barely made –if any- friends. Wouldn't call him exactly the most sociable guy in town. But who knew what Yuffie was thinking? She was a frivolous capricious ninja. She could be thinking about _it_. Right now.

With him.  
It.  
Sex.  
Bed.  
Table.  
Shower.  
Floor? It was possible. After all, she did remove his chair from his room. Maybe there was a reason. Maybe it was to open up more space for them to roll around on the floor and jump into it.

"Why do you wanna get me out of here?" She asked, and he almost jumped with glee when she broke him away from his quaint abstruse thoughts. _Bad Cloud. Bad!_

"Do you really need an answer to that?"

"It's not like you do anything here besides sleep, shower and rebandage your overly gigantic sword. Anyways, since I brought that up. Why do you have that sword? Isn't a normal size one good enough? Oh wait…I see…compensation…" She chided, before she blushed at the thoughts.

Luckily, Cloud being the socially-undeveloped being he was, didn't get what Yuffie was implying. "If I tell you about my sword, will you leave now?"

"There you go again! You want me to leave all the time! Is there something secret here that you don't want me finding out about?"

"No."

"Then why do you keep these curtains closed all the time?"

"I like the dark."

"Are you a vampire or something?"

"No." What are with her questions?

"At least half then?"

"No." Please leave.

"Half chocobo?"

"What do chocobos have to do with this?"

"Getting defensive now aye? So you have something to hide don't you? That's why you conceal your room from view with your not-so-obvious curtains. I've got you now! You've underestimated the Great Ninja Yuffie!"

"..." _She was ranting again._

"I'm on to you Cloud Strife. I know you're hiding something that you don't want me to know about here."

"I'm not." _She's never going to leave is she?_

"That's what they all say buddy." She grinned with alacrity, pacing around the room. "So what could a shady guy with a chocobo head be hiding in his room? A guy who is socially-retarded. Doesn't have many friends. With an oversized sword…What could a person like him do in his spare time alone in his dark darkkkk room?"

He narrowed his eyes. _She talks as if I'm not in the room._

She began pacing, conjecturing all the different possibilities, until she hit something. Literally. It was a table. Straight to the knee. Bang. Pow. Must be painful. But concurrently, she had also hit upon a conclusion. "Oh my god! I can't believe it! Why didn't I think of it?!"

Cloud was almost tempted to say: _what is it?_ But refrained. She would probably answer her own question, why bother wasting his breath and ask.

"Cloud! I can't believe you! Out of all the people- not you," she shook herself, disdain marked in her tone.

Now he was really curious. "…?"

"Play dumb do we huh? You know what I'm referring to? Most guys have them."

"No…"

"You know what I mean when I find it. Hmm…where is it? Must be here somewhere…" The ninja began searching beneath his bed, sweeping the floor for his supposed 'secret-must-hide-from-Yuffie' item.

"Are you looking for my material?" Now he was really confused.

"Where is it? Where's your porn stash?!"

It was no surprise that he soon kicked her out of his room after that.

--x o x--

Snapshot o4: One week before the finals

Her eyes were bright, looking at him with a frivolous grin on her face, as her boots tip toed on the edges of a ledge, the blue sky behind her pale in comparison to her vibrant personality. Could her face even pull a frown? Was she capable of crying?

He blinked at her for a while, wandering what crazy an utterly out of this world plan she had swirling in her brain at that moment. If she even possessed a brain that is. "Wait…what are you going to do?"

"Jump."

"We're how many meters high?" This was ridiculous. Why was he here on a rooftop of some building in Mt Olympus with Yuffie again? Oh yeah. She hid his cape because she wanted to see what he looked like without it. She claimed that he looked so much better without it.

"Enough to make me go splat."

"And you want to jump?"

"Yep." Her insanely long legs did elegant pirouettes on the ledge.

"Are you crazy?" He already knew the answer to that.

"Its funny how many people have asked me that."

"So you want to go diving off a mountain because…?"f

"It'll be fun. Come join me."

"No."

"Please."

"Your puppy dog eyes don't work on me."

"Fine, I'll do it by myself," she shrugged, lifting her arms up as if she were about to dive.

"Let me get this across to you… Do you want to die?"

"Let me get this across to you," she mimicked him teasingly, sticking her tongue out. "Do you want your cape back?"

She back flipped off the rocky ledge, and in turn Cloud followed suit after a quick scowl. The ninja screamed in excitement, arms flailing, black locks swooshing upwards as the rush of falling was invigorating. The blonde warrior eventually caught her in midair; she knew that his wing would work in her favour one day. Afterwards she predicted that he would complain and mock her about doing reckless dangerous capricious things, when he put her down on land. But the thing she didn't foretell was the secret smile on his face her vision took a shot of when he thought no one was looking.

--x o x--

Snapshot o5: The finals

It was like a blur.

The audience was left with their breath stolen, as they struggled to watch the final movements of the climatic battle between the two valiant warriors before them. The wind that stirred the sand viciously lifted a cloud of specks of darkened gold, faintly veiling the spectacle before them.

It was hard to depict, but the gladiators had passed each other in what seemed to be the final strike, the deciding factor to settle the battle, as the two stood a few meters away, backs facing one other, breaths heavy, their hands desperately clutched to their weapons.

His massive blade brought comfort to him. His trusty old buster sword that his father had, and then his mother passed down to him. It was slightly worn, but the handle fit snuggly within his callous palm and it reassured him, soothing his anxiety. It gave him strength, confidence in facing danger. It would protect him.

His thoughts were everywhere, converging into a miasma, his brain in a discombobulated state. He didn't know what he was cerebrating inside of him. His body had acted on its own when he picked up the sword during this battle on the final slash. He really didn't. It seemed like a lost dream to him now. A distant memory.

Cloud's blue eyes peered through strands of blonde, and he knew he was standing within the battlegrounds of the Colloseum. Here he was now again, nearing the end of the match, taking it all in. But something was different. It wasn't like his previous matches where he walked out the victor, head held high. The air was foreign to him; the breeze seemed chillier than usual, as if Shiva herself sought to freeze the blood flow within his veins.

He could make out the flaming blue figure amongst the audience stands, wrapped in a black toga, his burning eyes gasping in anticipation. The blonde swordsman recalled earlier, that before the match he had glanced at Yuffie staring daggers at Hades with such rancorous animosity. Hatred was what he unmistakably saw in her eyes. He didn't think a person so carefree like Yuffie had the capability of possessing so much bitter loathe and could express it so viciously in one stare. But thinking about it now, he hadn't known much about the ninja at all, and now it was like guilt had started playing with his emotions. Because he felt as if he should have known what Yuffie was like, who she was, but he never bothered to know.

Though his insides felt like a blizzard was raging, the sun was dauntingly glaring at him. Sweat dripped on his skin, as he looked above at the cloudless sky, a bright blazing blue. And the arena was so damn bright from the ricocheting of the sun's rays from the sandy floor, that his eyes were stinging. Or perhaps it was from the sand. He couldn't tell. It didn't bother him at first, but now it was uncontrollably blinding. The winds howled harsher, dots of sand whipping like a fog as his vision grew more distorted.

He closed his eyes, hearing his own deep breathing and feeling his perspiration on his skin. He couldn't hear the audience in the stand cheering nor was he sure if they had grown silent. He didn't really care. All he knew was that the crowd had edged off their seats, and the sound from Yuffie behind him.

She was stirring slowly, her legs struggling to keep herself up, her obdurate will persisting, carrying her body to keep on going. His nose could smell blood. And then it happened, he heard a groan and a thump. She had stumbled down, her bruised knees giving way, the metallic sound of her weapon clinging down as it dropped out of her battered hands.

She hissed as the sand beneath her knees was hot, and she almost wished that she had worn something to cover them up. She was so close, so fucking close…and the tears were welling up in her eyes, wanting to cry at her own debility but her pride refused them to escape from the cage of her lids. Her Conformer sat next to her feet, her hands too weak to hold it up. Her trademark headband fell out from her raven wild hair onto the ground, its grey ribbon scattered aesthetically amongst the sand, billowing with the breeze. She was wounded, yet him…

Cloud felt no sense of pain like a state of analgesia. His eyes reopened, the audience was like dapples of colour in the background this time. Undistinguishable from another. Green. Red. Yellow. Purple. Orange. But they all had the same looks in their faces. Suspense and the flash of blood thirst tinkling in wells of their eyes. He couldn't even pick out Hades now, as his eyes widened at the sudden abrupt pain that permeated through him, like his nerves suddenly activated, transmitting the agony into his brain.

His fingers pressed against the source of pain to find spots of sanguine liquid smearing his hand.

His head felt like it was enduring a thousand migraines at once and he knew something was wrong when he saw four of his own hands. All stained with blood. His blood.

His ocean blue eyes moved up, trying to find something to fixate on, desperately seeking to cling upon something. Up in the sky, the sky so blue, so vast. A solitary grey bird. A crane with its long beak and inside it was a flower hanging, its leucous petals emanating purity. A white lilly.

_'Strange_,' he thought. _'Aerith loved those flowers. '_

He wasn't sure if was imagining things, but he didn't have the energy to think about it clearly. The swordsman found the edges of his lips turning into a curve, before everything became black as his body gave in and collapsed.

Yuffie had won.

--x o x--

Snapshot o6: One day after the finals

There were all these kind of moments that you would never forget in your life. Sometimes, they were those really important life-changing events. Graduating Ninja academy. Leaving Tranverse Town for the first time. Watching your parents die. Sometimes you would always remember those little snapshots in your life, and sometimes you forget those that you should have remembered. Then, they were those random little encounters, and those really odd things you couldn't believe happen when it actually did happen.

Like somehow fate orchestrated you to go on some wild whim and pack your things and leave Tranverse Town and go on some crazy adventure. Who does those sorts of things anyway? Yuffie Kisaragi did.

But nevertheless, she was excited she was victorious. Though it wasn't just about beating someone, it was the satisfaction that she had won a bet and thus Cloud Strife had to return back home. Her adventure was coming to an end. It had been a very long period of time, but it had been fun-- nay-- not really. She would only be lying to herself. Squall had envisioned her out on vacation, living off someone but it was certainly not the case.

Yuffie had visited many worlds, some cities that were absolutely astounding and breathtaking, but not all had pretty rainbows. There were some worlds deluged in civil crisis, a city full of decadence and violence, turmoil and some cities that were absolutely astounding. Along the way, she had made many friends; Yuffie was the amiable type after all. But some of those friends died, and some of those that had, had died in front of her. Her journey consisting of the occasional motion sickness and what seemed to be a string of unfortunate events coming one after another.

Like after working hard to steal some food, some asshole just had to swipe it off you before you get to have a bite. And the time when her sparkling I-just-purchased-these-babies- brand new boots was adorned with a blotch of slimy green gum.

Oh yeah. Add a few storm clouds with the heavy rain here and there but minus the umbrella. And plus a 100 from hustling some Agrabah idiots at poker, times that by 50 by rigging the deck, and after doing some sea horse racing betting in Atlantis, times that amount by 0. The end figure is the cash balance of the very unfortunate Yuffie Kisaragi.

Yeah, you've got yourself one pretty pissed off ninja chick.

So it seemed like fate being a fickle bitch had steered Yuffie to a particular non-named bar, damped like a water rat, flat broke, with a piece of puke green staining the bottom of her boots as she swaggered in, half-suicidal, half-murderous, drowning herself with a bottle of head-messing liver-exploding shit.

Kohl strings of wet hair sticking to her face, like black webs against the cold grey ground. Her breath wreaked of alcohol and her eyes were so dilated and unfocused that she was looking at the sky. The dark looming sky, dolorous clouds, the spiraling water dripping down on her face that kept her awake.

And she was thinking of quitting, packing it away, because she knew she was so fucked in the head if her soul purpose was to look for someone else's beloved. She wanted to smack herself in the face for running a marathon when she didn't know where or how long it would take to reach the finishing line.

Though amidst her mid-life crisis-like epiphany, she had heard a man. It was a man. 30 or 40. Husky voice.

It didn't really matter since she didn't see the face, but she overheard him talking as he stepped out of the bar, completely oblivious of her presence. It was a lead. About a certain gravity-defying blonde haired guy lurking around in a place called Mt Olympus.

And then, she found herself winning what seemed to her the most important battle in her life, celebrating with her two soldiers of the Olympus army.

"Oh my gawsh Yuffie! You won!" A blonde girl flung her arms around the victorious Yuffie as soon as she was finished with her treatment. The raven haired girl flicked one of Rikku's braided locks out of her face, as she grinned.

"Yeah, I'm still in shock."

"You're like officially a free man- I meant woman. You get what I mean! No longer a prisoner since you've made it this far!"

"Aww…I kinda liked the Colloseum. Free accommodation. Free food…It's just my chances of death are extremely high here. No biggie."

"And now my girl's gonna verse the Great Hercules and have your name written down in history if you win!" Sniff sniff. "I'm so proud."

"Congratulations Yuff," Roxas gave her the thumbs up. "Nearly didn't think you'd make it."

"You had doubt in me? The Great Ninja Yuffie!"

"Didn't you just say you had doubt too?" Roxas laughed, his boyish nature revealing itself.

"Are you gonna question me or celebrate my victory!! I'm thinking all you can eat buffet on me!" The ninja raised her hands in delight.

"Neither," Roxas replied.

"What?"

"Sorry Yuffie. Since it's near the end of the Colloseum rounds, us soldiers have to prepare another criminal batch to dispose to the Colloseum. Jail's way too crowded. Blame Commander Seifer. Never gives any of us a break," Rikku pouted.

"Oh…" The raven haired girl's voice softened.

"Hey! It's not like you could treat us all anyway. You're nearly broke. Correction, you are broke. You had to steal food and that's why you ended up here in the first place remember," Rikku said lightheartedly, easing up the tension as the trio laughed.

"Since you guys have to go, I'll go check up on Cloud or something…" Yuffie began. The blonde girl raised her brow in suspicion. "Y'know cos he could be emotionally unstable from losing to me and go suicidal on me. I don't wanna carry a corpse back to Tranverse Town. It would reek from decomposition. Think about the disgusting bacteria, then the insects and the annoying flies that would come. And oh…who could forget about the eggs. Those said eggs would hatch and become gazillion slimy maggots and oh fuck."

"Erm…Yeah we get the point…" Roxas looked away, feeling a little green.

"Well erm…we'll come running straight after we finish your duty and throw a party for you winning kay? See ya!" Rikku quickly grinned, as they all heading in their own directions.

Her blonde plaits skipped in the air as she patrolled down the corridor, making sure not to run into Commander Seifer. She had a terrible feeling that she was going to get fired. After all, he had put up with her insistent babbling but she was pretty sure she had pulled the last strings when she had yelled at him. Scanning the surroundings in front, peering out from behind a wall to make sure the coast was clear from ahead of her.

"Who are you trying to hide from?"

The oh-too-familiar voice came from behind her as she couldn't help but scream out from surprise. Just her luck, instead of hiding away from him, he had come to her.

"Did I scare you?" Was he mocking her? He was! Seifer was subtly taunting her. Sneaky bastard.

"No sir!" She flustered, secretly annoyed that she hadn't noticed her Commander creep up behind her. "I was surveying the perimeters sir!"

"Rikku, you're not a good liar," he bluntly said, his cold eyes unmoving.

"I'll remember to take that point in sir and I'm busy…and I need to go do some…soldier stuff!" Rikku nervously made a lame excuse only to be met with his intimidating gaze, as her legs stiffened and refused to move.

"Obviously you didn't take my previous point in did you? Stay here. I need to talk to you," the tall blonde man ordered, as she gulped.

There were probably two consequences from this. One, she was going to get fired. Two, she was going to keep her job but he'll force her to slave away at some really shitty work. Both seemed not too enticing. "What is it sir?" The blonde girl didn't notice at first, but there was hardly any space between the two of them, as her muscles tensed up.

"Despite what you did…I'm not going to fire you," he began, rolling his eyes as she sighed with relief.

"Serious?! Oh my gawsh. Thank you. I could like kiss you right now!" She squealed in happiness, as she found it cute how Seifer's cheeks reddened.

He cleared his throat quickly, trying to mask the colour on his face. "Only on one condition."

"I knew it damnit! Its option number two…I meant…" She laughed nervously. "Go on sir!"

"Stop wearing that colourful scarf. We're in a colloseum, not Sesame Street."

She made a face at first, but then took off her rainbow striped scarf from around her neck and tossed it around his. "Then you can wear it. And if you take it off I'll never forgive you for wasting my ice cream I bought you."

Rikku quickly made a dash for it, before he changed his mind about firing her as he scowled at her and whipped the scarf off from his neck as if each second it was on him was contaminating his greatness. Though the weird thing was, he had kept that scarf neatly perched beneath the lamp of his bedside table.

--x o x--

Later, Cloud had woken up to find himself in a room painted sterile white, surrounded by some hospital paraphernalia. His hands instinctively searched for his buster sword, as he found it perched neatly next to his bed. He was in the hospital wing. The starkly white walls gave it away as he recalled hating the colour when he came and visited Yuffie when she was injured. His fingers ran up his head to find a bandage around his forehead. Yuffie must have one with the final last move. It could have killed him. That bitch.

It fucking hurt. She was probably prancing around boasting about how she beat him.  
_Damnit_. He was hoping the footsteps approaching his room were not from that overly perky, ebony-haired, obnoxiously arrogant brat of a ninja bitch.

It wasn't.

Though now, he wasn't sure who was worse. Yuffie or…this guy.

"Shit. Didn't think you'd notice it was me straight away! I thought I completely blended in as a professional doctor. I even perfected my doctor persona too." It was Yue Kisaragi. The brother. Dickhead. Didn't like the guy. At all. It was amazing that no one notcied that he was obviously an escaped convict dressed up as a doctor. Especially with the name tag of Dr S Hieckapelanghi stuck to his coat. The bastard didn't have the slightest Indian heritage in him. But whatever. Not his place to judge.

"You need a few extra lessons in ninja stealth from Yuffie," Cloud smirked lightly, his eyes scanning Yue for any weapons that might be hidden underneath his doctor's coat. "So you come to finish off the job?"

"Nahh…" Yue laughed at the blonde's loathe towards him. An icy glare from Cloud wasn't exactly welcoming. "Not my style to get them while their down."

"Funny, that's not what a member of Shinra Inc would do." Cloud stared daggers at Yue, hoping that the invisible blades would rip him to shreds.

The black haired man just gave a slight smirk and shrugged nonchalantly. "Look, I dunno what personal shit you got against the organization that I used to work for, nor do I wanna know or care about your sap story…but I didn't come 'ere to pick a fight...unfortunately. Though, I wouldn't mind to get some shit started some other time when you're fully healed…if you'd still be interested and not pussy out on me."

Cloud smirked in response with a nod, as if indicating him to get on with it.

"Standing alone in a room with you with a bed in it is making me feel gay, so I'll get to the point. Even though I don't really like broodin' shits like you, I…er…don't mind you and my sister…" Yue scratched the back of his head, searching for the right words. "Shit, how do I say this? As her older brother, I'll let you two be friends…or…er… even…more..."

Cloud's eyes were bewildered. "…"

"See I'm not a dumbshit nor a complete noob, so I know what you did out there when you were fighting against my sister," Yue folded his arms, as he coolly leant against the wall. Yes. What a badass.

"What are you talking about?" Translation: What have you been smoking?

"You missed on purpose…The final blow, you should have won. You moved your sword slightly by 20 degrees so that it would avoid killing Yuffie, and that you let yourself get injured instead. Shit, there were several chances you could have went chop suey on her and ended it right there." The wounded blonde's eyes darted to Yue, secretly impressed at the black-haired man's expertise in combat. "Though she probably didn't notice."

Yue's light blue eyes drifted over to Cloud, seeing his undecipherable expression as the blonde remained silent. The blonde couldn't really say anything. He didn't exactly know what to say. Who could blame him? It was Cloud Strife.

"Though shit you shoulda told me earlier. I would've betted a million on Yuffie. I would be a millionaire by now!" The black haired man laughed light-heartedly, as Cloud saw that Yuffie's influence had a profound yet good effect on her once unkind brother. "Well thanks I guess, and since you have nothing to say I'm gonna head out-"

"Yue."

"Well dayum. You do have the ability to talk. Didn't I say I wanted to make this quick?"

Cloud twitched his eyebrow, but ignored Yue's comment. "Sephiroth…what happened to him?"

"He's right behind you…HAHAHA. Shit, should've seen your face Strife. Priiiceless," Yue burst into fits of laughter, as Cloud hissed in annoyance. The blonde swordsman definitely knew that Yue and Yuffie were related. They both were insanely annoying.

"But anyway about the ex-general Sephiroth…forget about him. He's unimportant right now. You have other things to worry about, like coping with Yuffie's never ending braggin'. And don't forget the motion sickness on the way back to Tranverse Town. Wonder why I'm not stickin around? Yeah buddy, it's gonna suck ass."

Yue made a mocking smirk, ignoring Cloud's never ending glare as the black-haired man turned on his heel and left the hospital room.

Little did the two guys know that before Yue had turned to exit Cloud's hospital ward, a patter of footsteps as silent as a ninja fled from behind the door.

--x o x--

A/N- Around 6800 words.

I decided to make it in little snapshots, to show the view from all sides. But yeah, did you like the clouffie & clerith bits?  
I haven't written up the next chapters so I'm not sure if it'll take 1 or 2 (or even more but I doubt it) chapters to finish it up because I realized that the Clouffie relationship is developing really slow lol. I'm trying to quicken up the pace since its nearly the end.  
& yeah, I think I fail at seifer x rikku. hahaha. So im just gonna leave it as it is, and let the readers use their imagination about what happens to them.

Forgive me for not editing this (i suck at tenses.i probably need a beta or something). I wanted to post it asap cos of the lack of updating.

Tell me what you think! You liked it? Disliked it (hate is such a painful word)? Suggestions?  
lovelove.

x--kaikai / kaidorei / caroline

Disclaimer- same as before.


	15. Chapter 14: complimentary breakfast

**My Search for You**

By kaikai pants

**A/N**- 26 july 2009. BOOYAH! _Finally_ updated, after ages, literally AGES (as in 1 year and 2 months). I haven't written anything for ages, so please bear with my deteriorating vocabulary.

-------**x o **x**--------**

"_You missed on purpose…The final blow, you should have won. You moved your sword slightly by 20 degrees so that it would avoid killing Yuffie, and that you let yourself get injured instead. Shit, there were several chances you could have went chop suey on her and ended it right there." _

-------**x o **x**--------**

**Chapter fourteen: **Complimentary Breakfast

Roxas was in shock.

Not the type of shock where a serial killer hops out from the darkness and starts hacking away at the poor confused group of carefree teenagers with a machete.

This shock was rather the complete and utter jaw dropping, oh-my-gawd, I just _jizzed _my pants, kind-of shock.

He had not expected to see what he had just witnessed.

What he had just witnessed was not meant for his innocent virgin eyes.

So what had caused such a shock to such a naïve-seeming blonde haired boy, or _man _(as Roxas liked to think)?

It started off as a relatively normal day.

Normal being that it was quite noisy within the walls of the Coliseum. Roxas let out a tired sigh, as he continued his shift, listening to the routine sounds around him: restless ex-prisoners sharpened their blades, mighty gladiators lurked the grounds in hopes to claim the revered title of being the strongest. The blue eyed boy could hear them all and oddly enough, could probably distinguish each between each unique tone. When it came to the arena he could recall the zealous cheers and screaming from the crowd, the portentous nobles applauding behind crystal wine glasses and fans of peacock feathers in their VIP spectator booths. It was amazing how a bunch of fighters battling in the arena could draw so many people, and stimulate such fervid vigour.

And it was his job as a soldier of Mt Olympus to maintain public order, tame the blood hungry and the resolved the brawls between those _sonofabitches_, er…he meant, competitors of course (no way Roxas would use such language _riiight_). Y'know all that nasty stuff.

Soldiers patrolled the area daily that these sounds became a part of the Coliseum itself. Being one of those soldiers on duty, clad in his white uniform, Roxas strolled down the halls of the grand building. The loud noise from the training room died down with each brisk step forward he took. It had become rowdy ever since a new batch of criminals and gladiators were thrown in for the next tournament since Yuffie had won the right of her freedom.

This was why he sneakily chose to avoid the pandemonium and selected the patrol route involving the corridors of the bedroom quarters and the gardens, which were known to be the most quiet and peaceful in the whole Coliseum. The lights on the high ceilings were particularly soft and lambent, as he stopped to look out a window to the town of Mount Olympus- a nightscape of pillars and fountains, majestic gardens, vines, the clouds coming in to erase the stars. All the torches were lit up in the centre of the town and if he opened the window he could probably hear the strains of music. After admiring the scenery, he closed the curtains, letting the exquisite draperies shield the windows from the outside and continued walking along the plush carpet of the hallway.

A faint rasp of a latch, a whisper of hinges caught his attention. The blue-eyed soldier moved out towards the sound as silent as a mouse, hands nearing his weapon. He made a cursory glance, peering left and right with the squint-eyed suspicion of a covert operative scouting the enemy's territory.

Normally the blonde wasn't so paranoid. Most soldiers would assume that it was just some gladiator walking in and out of their room and dismiss it off in an instant. But ever since Yue's escape, Commander Seifer's endless (someone nail his goddamn mouth shut puh-leeze) lectures since the event had increased everyone's anxiety. Truthfully, Roxas was just bored and just wanted to take a quick nap in an unmanned area without anyone noticing and get the credit of doing his work scrupulously. Yes, despite his boyishly innocent looks, Roxas was a cheeky guy.

Now that he heard someone was around, it had spoilt his plan! (_Oh noes!)_

Actually, it wasn't just a _someone… _what he saw was_ two of them._

That was when Roxas forced himself from causing a debacle, nearly shoving his gloved gauntlet down his mouth to stop himself from gasping in shock.

That shock being…the two silhouettes standing together.

Who were these two people?

One of them was Cloud Strife.

The other…none other than the loveable, Yuffie Kisaragi.

Okay? So what? Why could two people standing together in a coincidentally dark lit bedroom corridor bring such a shock? (Aside from the ambience was rather intimate and reminiscent of a cliche scene of two lovers having an affair.)

All was still; the air caked with tension. Cloud stood a few steps away from Yuffie at her door, blue eyes fixated on pools of stormy grey. Her strands of raven shimmered in the lambent light. No words were spoken at first, only the footsteps of passerbys walking along in the Coliseum's dormitories could be heard.

They had finally exchanged murmurs- Roxas couldn't hear clearly from his distance, peering from behind a pillar.

And then quick movements. Agile fingers, adept digits used to wield shurikens, grabbed at his shirt, pulling him roughly towards her. There was a slight expression of awkwardness and surprise in Cloud's face, when she tugged him close, but Roxas couldn't tell from the red cloak whisked across his neck. Roxas could have sworn he saw a tinge of pink on Cloud's face. Maybe it was the lighting.

"Don't just stand there, help me out here," she hissed in impatience, as she had trouble with the buckles of his chest plate. He nodded lightly, his blue eyes moved from her to his own armour, as he effortlessly shed the armour piece like a snake, revealing a shirt underneath.

Those same dexterous fingers were picking at the buttons of his shirt with the proficiency of a ninja picking at a lock. "Stay still," she ordered staring intently at the buttons of his shirt. He gazed deeply into her eyes, his hand cupping her cheek, pushing her chin up, bringing her face to his. And then-

"**Roxas!**"

"Yuuuuuffie, don't interrupt him! He just got to the _juicy_ part!" An overly bouncy blonde girl stammered, her colourful beads in her hair waving around madly. "What happened? Tell me damnit!" Rikku slammed her fists down against the table, her eyes gleaming with suspense. Yuffie's mouth opened, only to be corked with the hands of Rikku, as she signaled Roxas to finish. "Damnit Yuffie! Let the man finish!"

The ninja glared at them with my most evil scowl of everlasting guilt for daring to ignore her.

Roxas cleared his throat. "And then..." Rikku watched her brother intently like a drug addict, bopping up and down, waiting for him to finish his suspenseful story. "A soldier came from behind me requesting I go meet with Seifer and I was dragged away." Roxas replied innocently, taking a bite out of a takoyaki stick.

Rikku's eye twitched, about to explode like a volcano. "That's it! That's _it_!? Where is the part about the passion, the romance…" The blonde girl sighed dramatically, sinking into her seat. "… The hot sweaty sex?"

Yuffie nearly had a spasm attack, as she coughed out the drink in her mouth. Did she just hear correctly? _Did Rikku just suggest sexual implications with me and…Cloud?! Cloud?! He's like…ew…Cloud. No, that was just wrong. He's probably a robot in disguise. A half-chocobo vampire robot with wires programmed in his brain to totally own at fighting and fire out witty remarks. That's why his body is so perfect, those abs, those sexy abs as if the gods sculpted them! Oh- I'm getting off trail here. Wait, what was I talking about? Oh yes, having sex with Cloud…wait! Not having sex with Cloud. That's right._

This was supposed to be a festive dinner for Yuffie, a joyous occasion where Yuffie could laugh, drink, relax, and celebrate her victory, but this felt like an embarrassing tourniquet, where she was picked apart with a stick by Rikku and her boyishly pretty younger brother, Roxas. Gah! Why was this happening to her?

"I did _not_ have hot sweaty sex, or _any_ form of sexual relations with Cloud!" The ninja snapped adamantly, narrowing her gray eyes at Rikku. "AND Roxas is much too young to be discussing about this sort of thing…" Yes, shouldn't Rikku be the caring older sister and shield young Roxas' ears from such inappropriate language.

"I'm _sixteen_ Yuffie," Roxas rolled his eyes, feeling the need to defend his 'manly' honour.

"Yuffie's right Roxie, you're _barely_ legal. Go away. Your ears aren't old enough for the over 18 conversation me and the Yuffsters are gonna have!" Rikku grinned widely.

"We are _not _having any s-e-x talks because there was no s-e-x-ing to begin with," Yuffie seethed with frustration.

"You know I am _old_ enough to know how to _spell_ sex," the blonde boy narrowed his eyes at the two girls across him at the table, trying to get this message across.

"You don't have to deny that you had s-e-x with him Yuffs," Rikku began.

"Why am I being ignored?" Roxas sighed with defeat, knowing he was being ignored and continued to eat his meal.

"I totally understand that as a woman you would totally find Cloud to be a very attractive. It's why us women, are born with hormones. We're supposed to go all squeamish when we see a hot guy, it's like how guys have porn and use their hands to whan-"

"Rikku! Roxas is _right _here..."

"Yeah _right_, Roxies is in like peak age! I can assure you after opening a carefully hidden box discreetly labeled 'school work' behind a white jacket in his closet!" Rikku laughed, and that was when Roxas wished he was being ignored instead. "Well point is Yuffie, you _have _to spill the details. It's like part of the sister's code of honour!" the eccentric blonde wavered on.

"I did not have s-e-x with him!"

"Fine Yuffie, if you don't wanna tell me it's like…cool," Rikku placed her hand in front of Yuffie's now very annoyed face. "Just like answer me one thing okay…"

Yuffie sighed in defeat. "Fine. Go on."

"How was it? Like was he any _good_?" Yuffie swore that talking to Rikku was like talking to a kindergarten teacher, as she huffed at Rikku's selective hearing. Yuffie's eye twitched, as she glared daggers at Rikku. If that wasn't enough, the blonde girl oblivious to Yuffie's building irritation continued, "C'mon just out of ten… Roxie doesn't understand what we're talking about anyway." Roxas too shot Rikku a death glare.

"Point is…Rikku, if you let me finish, that's not what happened!" Yuffie insisted flabbergasted.

"But like, Roxie saw it with his own eyes and he _never_ lies," Rikku nodded innocently, engulfing a meatball in her mouth. "…Except that one time when he was younger he used to wear a dress and he insisted he was originally a girl and I had to explain the thing between his thighs, was not a – OUCH! Hey! Roxie, that was totally uncalled for!"

"Rikku…"

"Yeah?"

"_Shut up,_" both Yuffie and a blushing Roxas snapped in unison, as she folded her arms over her chest and sulkily sculled a drink down her throat.

"As I was saying, Roxas saw the whole scene from a distance and he left during it. Thus, he couldn't really tell what _really _happened," Yuffie clarified. "And no, Rikku. I did not have hot steamy s-e-x with Cloud." The ninja added, before it came out of the blonde girl's mouth.

After taping Rikku's mouth with scotch tape (yes, Roxas carried around scotch tape because he knew how his older sister was like), the blonde boy finally asked the million dollar question, "so Yuffie, what _did _happen then?"

"Ooh…STORY TIME!" The blonde giggled, well _would _have giggled, if her mouth wasn't currently taped up, as she clapped her hands, her palms clasped onto her cheeks, and looked up to Yuffie, as if she were a child listening to a bed time story.

- - _yuffie pov_

It was the beginning of a Cloud-free day. Seriously, the sky was a perfect unblemished blue and the sun was up and _damn _it was bright. Since it was so bright, I decided to sleep for another two hours, which were apparently turned out to be more like ten hours. A humped mass lay underneath a thick, heavy blanket moved a bit, maneuvering its position so that the lump's eyes would be shielded away from the light. That little lump was me. And I'm not actually a lump, as in a pile of shit or something. I'm Yuffie Kisaragi, ninja extraordinaire, fearless heroine of Tranverse Town, and recently discovered princess of the forgotten land of Wutai. What a sexy resume huh?

Anyway, so there I was, in my bed _alone _by the way, with no one by the name of Cloud Strife in it! I wanted to lavish in the bed's warm confinements because soon I would have to depart away from its sweet cosy blankets. Why you ask? Because this was the last day in the Coliseum. Yes, I would miss my beloved bed. It was better than my bed at home; perhaps I could somehow drag it out and post it via gummi ship. Do you think the people who work here would notice a missing bed in a bedroom? Probably. I would also miss the large bathtub, and of course the complimentary shower caps and shampoo bottles. Plus the 21 inch plasma TV that had blessed me with episodes of 'How I Met Your Mother'. Oh and there was that chair! If my butt ever wanted to just randomly get drunk and elope with some random inanimate object, it would have to be with the chair that I stole from Cloud. Seriously, my ass never felt so good I think it's in love. Yes, I have an ass that is in love with a chair. No hating, I can sue you for discrimination.

So there I was, thinking about the possibilities of my butt and the chair ever reuniting until there was a knock at the door.

There were only three gentle rattles if I remember correctly (but who really cared about those insignificant details anyway?). So where was I? Yes, I'm sitting in my comfortable bed thinking, do I really wanna answer the door? It probably wasn't Rikku since she would usually just barge in anyway. Curse you employee privileges.

I really didn't want to answer the door, but what if it's something important like complimentary breakfast (I still thought it was morning) in bed? Ooooh that would be nice. No one could pass up free breakfast!

However, ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to announce this to everyone to be their take-home message, y'know, the moral of the story. Do not forget this, like ever, ever EVER. And if you forget this, I'll be like _hah! I told you so, _and I will _never _live you down for this, trust me, even your grandkids won't be spared. There is always, (and I repeat), _always_ something definitely wrong when you think you are getting complimentary breakfast, when it's nighttime. If I knew this, I would _not _have answered the door.

Anyway, not knowing this wise theory (devised by yours cordially, Yuffie Kisaragi), thinking I would get free breakfast was what brought me to open the door, staring at a man who resembled a certain blonde haired swordsman. Being the logical and completely rational person I was, I had to contemplate the question as to whether: was this really Cloud?

Firstly, why would Cloud Strife be here at my door?

This time _he _was here to see me, and he had knocked on the door like a normal (as oddly as that sounded) person to see the magnificent ninja such as myself. It was usually the other way around (minus the knocking, I usually just picked the lock _boo-yah! Ninja skills_ _fo' shizzle_). And hey! Why do I have to be the one who always went out of my way to find him? I mean I did spend 3 years and over trying to find his chocobo butt! About time he came to find me! Maybe he has finally came to his senses and admitted that I am the most awesome person he's met in his life. That would be nice. Wonder if he came with a bouquet of flowers? Or a box of chocolates? Hmm…

Secondly, he never came to see me. Ever.

Only time was when he walked out of the shower and realized that there was an empty space where his red cape use to be placed in his room. I wanted to steal his buster sword, but I was too lazy to drag the heavy weapon around (and it's a bit hard to hide a massive sword under a blanket for the matter of fact). Ahh…Good times, good times. But seriously, have you seen the man capeless? Gawsh! He could win Olympus' next top Supermodel. I totally tried to convince him to sport the whole capeless look, saying it's the new black baby. And then he replied with, 'how can black be new?' and I sorta just stopped trying because some people are just programmed to be socially retarded.

So thus, back to the critical question…Was this truly _the _Cloud Strife standing at my door?

Cloud Strife aka, the anti social bastard who frolicked away like a lost lamb from Tranverse Town and was too inconsiderate to care that maybe someone back there might be blindly stupid enough (she's a sweet girl though, bless her soul) –cough- Aerith –cough- might re for quest a particular totally awesome and too kind (much too kind, benevolent and selfless for her own good, that it brings me to tears –sniff sniff- ) warrior of the ancient arts to find that son of a bitch.

I cleared out my eyes and blinked a couple of times.

1. Gravity-defying blonde hair with mako-enhanced blue eyes. Check.

2. Ragged red cape and wing. Check.

3. Massive ass sword. Check.

Hmm…this person in front of me _seems _to dress like Cloud Strife. But it was very easy to dress like that chocobo butt. The sword behind his back could easily be a cheap copy. Probably had tiny words 'made in China' imprinted on the side. And the hair? An appointment to the nearest hair salon, or if you're cheap, then attack your hair with something called bleach and then attack you're your hair with wax. So how about the red cloak? Yeah, stroll down any street and you'd find some homeless bum sleeping under a ragged and torn crimson blanket. Though the armour did seem pretty legit but there were armour smiths everywhere these days, especially in Mt Olympus. Now you're thinking…how about those mako-infused eyes? There's no way an imposter could get a pair of perma-glow-in-the-dark contacts like those. They were one of a kind. Well have you ever heard of the black market? You could get anything there with technology and the advance medicine these days. Get with the times people!

"Is it _really _you?" I asked in disbelief, squinting as I inspected this peculiar man at my door. He sure did act like Cloud with his stance, and the way he stood nonchalantly in the hallway.

He stood there silent for a while, probably wondering whether it was a trick question. "Do you know anyone else that looks like me?" The swordsman deadpanned, not thinking that he would need any further explanation. Hmm…Same bleak voice and slight dosage of sarcasm. But seriously, I asked him a question and he answers me with…another question. Stupid no? But what if it's a Cloud imposter and he's trying to trick me into thinking he's Chocobo head so that I drag the wrong person to Tranverse Town instead of him. Since Cloud Strife was sneaky like that, that would sound like a Cloud Strife thing to do. Damn that Cloud Strife!

I pressed my lips tightly together, eyebrow raised as I continued to scrutinise this possible charlatan. "Come here," I ordered, signaling him to come closer to me so I could further examine him.

"W-what?" He hesitated, at me closing in to his private space. I have no idea why though? Because who wouldn't want to be blessed within the 1 metre radius of Yuffie Kisaragi. "Why?"

"Didn't your teacher ever tell you that asking questions were for stupid people!? Just do it damnit! Gawsh! Hurry up, you move as fast as my pet snail Fluffy." He paused and then shrugged it off, probably because he couldn't be bothered to question me, which did seem like an action the real Cloud Strife would do. By the way, Fluffy is long dead with a SPLAT thanks to the negligent shoe of yours truly, Squall Leonhart. Was I compensated for my loss? Naaa dah! What happened to human, or in this case, snail rights? Snails were living creatures too! Anyway Squally was like, meh and just wiped Fluffy's guts off his shoe into some grass. _Rude much! _Thus, Fluffy eventually succumbed to his fate as he entered the black cavern of a bird's mouth and became digested by its stomach acids. Poor guy. His existence was to be bird food and eventually a chunk of bird faeces.

Okay…off topic… better return to the story…but before I do I must add…

I totally knew that Roxas was hiding behind the wall…er… what? He was hiding behind the pillar? Yeah! I said _pillar, _not wall. I did too! You're delirious, but I can sorta see how you can mix up the words pillar and wall together. They both sorta sound alike. For example, they both have two l's, and an 'a' in them.

Anyway, point is, I knew Roxas was there. Like Roxas is good, but not _that _good, I totally sensed his presence from a mile away. There is no way _anyone_ can outninja a ninja! Enough said, I rest my case!

Returning to the story…on how I looked like I was stripping Cloud, which I so did NOT do…

"Hold out your hands," I said, as he looked at me strangely at first and then complied lifting his hands towards me. So that was when I began undressing Cloud (in a completely non-sexual kind of way). And ta dah! That was when I saw the scar I gave him when I beat him in the finals. How reasonable was that, I mean sure, I could have _asked _him to show it to me, instead of undressing him myself…but…I just woke up goddamnit! It's hard to think clearly.

So, I, Yuffie Kisaragi, with her powers of awesomeness officially declare that it actually was Cloud Strife in front of me!

- -

Thus even though the story that Yuffie told Rikku and Roxas had ended there, finally clearing up that nothing sexual had occurred then to Rikku's dismay, as Yuffie headed back to her room to get some sleep for her big trip tomorrow, the real story did not actually end there…

- -

"Oh my gawd! You're _actually_ Cloud!" Yuffie declared, after stripping his shirt off.

"Erm…yeah…" Cloud replied patronisingly.

"Hiiii!" The ninja yelled excitedly, as he instinctively flinched slightly at her vociferous sound; he was slowly growing immune to it though. Slowly.

"Um…hey?" He stood there awkwardly, eyes searching the ceiling as he scratched his golden hair.

"Did you…did you… wanna come in?"

"…No… not really." He was fine just where he was, just outside of her room thank you very much, where if something odd happened, he could easily make his fast escape. Because seriously, who knew what lurked in Yuffie's room?

"Oh… okay…" This was when things grew a little awkward. She stared back at him with large stormy grey eyes. "So, what brings you here? You hardly- actually… you _never_ come to see me…Did you miss me or something? You did; didn't you? I knew it; I kept telling Roxas that–"

"You talk too much," he groaned, saving himself from listening to another one of Yuffie's rambling sprees.

"And you hardly talk at all! So I'm merely compensating for your lack of conversing. Oh snap! In your face. That was pretty good, high five!" Yuffie raised her hand up, only to be smacked with nothing but air. "Oh c'mon! Don't leave me hanging! Gees, you suck party pooper." _Note to self, teach Cloud how to recognize a good come back and train him how to 'high- five'. _

"…"

"Erm…okay. So not only do you neglect me of my very _well deserved_ high five, you knock on my door, tricking me into getting out from my beloved bed, by pretending to be complimentary breakfast–"

"What? I never did that…" _Why breakfast? It's nighttime. _

"Really?" Oh damn, She really needed to distinguish between reality and internal cogitation. "Point is, before you _interrupted_ me; you are the one that is at my door, as in, _you _came to see me. You don't wanna come inside, thus I can conclude that means you wanna either talk, visit or/and see the awesomeness that is me. So are you gonna man up, and tell me what you want, or are you just gonna stand there and admire my gorgeous ninja-esque beauty?"

"…"

"I take your silence to mean the latter, that means you are gonna stare at my amazingness…however, my time is precious, and my beauty is...for lack of better words, _phenomenal_. So since we're buddies, I'll give you an exclusive discount off my splendid photos. Normally they're worth–"

"Yuffie." _God damn, she really did talk too much. _

"Yes?"

"I…I…"

"What is it?"

Cloud stood there pensively, unsure why he was at her door in the first place. His body just moved on its own, his boot clad feet leading the way from his infirmary room. This was stupid, he felt stupid. Why was he there?

Did he _actually _want to see her? There was no way! The insane bitch nearly chopped his head apart with her massive shuriken, when she defeated him. And by defeat, Cloud chivalrously _let _her win.

Yes, gallantry was back.

Firstly, she was annoying, no god fucking damn annoying (and Cloud's mind never swore!) She talked too much, and most of it was about irrelevant topics about ninjas, giving him a makeover (no matter how many times she tried to convince him, there was no way he was getting rid of that cape, it had sentimental value to it), how he was a half vampire chocobo, alleging him of having a porn stash, etc. And why the hell did he actually remember and listen to the crap she spoke about? Wait, the crap that she rambled on about wasn't even proper _crap_! It was crap that bored the crap outta crap! Fcuk's sakes!

He was going insane. She was making him insane. It was the cycle of insaneness. C'mon, what type of girl thinks that he wasn't Cloud Strife? She obviously was missing a few screws in her head. Maybe when Yue was carrying baby Yuffie out of the burning buildings of a ruined Wutai, he probably dropped her a couple of times. She even had to remove his shirt to confirm his clearly palpable identity. And she wasn't even polite enough to put his shirt back on for him. It's not like he randomly went up to her and went: take off your shirt, or something. Wait that came out quite inappropriate. He didn't mean that, as in _that_. He meant, as in…her shirt…wait, speaking of shirts…from far he couldn't tell but…up close… HOLY SHIT…she's not…she's not…Yuffie's not… wearing a bra!

Divert eyes. Divert eyes; look down, down, down…

D

O

W

N

Down to those legs, long long legs. Long sexy seductive legs. Why did she even bother wearing any pants if they were that short?

"Cloooooud! Earth to Cloud! Hello?"

"Yuffie what is it now?" The blonde swordsman snapped angrily, as he looked up at her confused face.

"I dunno, you tell me you emobutt. You totally spaced out on me, and I'm the one who usually does that. You can't steal my job. I'm the thief okay. Anyway, you're the one who came and visited me remember? So…what's up?"

Damnit. She was correct. He did come and see her, for some odd peculiar reason, which he couldn't quite discover as of yet, oh fuck it, who was he kidding? He just wanted to see her and…say 'hello.' Okay, maybe not hello. Cloud was too cool for 'hellos'. He didn't even say, 'yo'. He just nodded and acted all badass.

Could it possibly be that he, Cloud Strife, just wanted to see Yuffie? Did he just want to see her cheerful smile, hear her voice, hear her complain, hear her laugh; hear her ramble on about the crap that bored the crap outta crap? Did he actually, just, miss her? "I…"

"Yes Cloud?" She looked up at him, her grey eyes glistening. "Cloud, you can tell me anything." He took a breath, and sighed, looking away from her. He wasn't very good at thinking up things on the spot. He confirmed that after what he was about to say next.

"I want my chair back." _**What? **_Cloud nearly bashed and internally omnislashed himself for saying something so ridiculous.

"Hey! What whyyy! You can't take it away from me! You can't do it! You can't break the bond that my ass has made with that chair!" The raven haired ninja passionately proclaimed.

Now was time to redeem himself. There was no way someone like Cloud Strife would care about something as insignificant as a chair, a chair that technically wasn't even his in the first place, nor would he actually say something like: I want my chair back, in the first place. "Whatever, keep it. I don't need that chair because I'm not staying next door anymore as I…am no longer in the tournament." No longer in the tournament pretty much equated to 'I got my ass whooped by the wonderful Yuffie Kisaragi, and got booted outta the competition', but there was no way in hell Cloud would _ever _say that.

"Oh cool. Because you ain't getting it back. My ass is in love with that chair. And if it's going to have babies with it, I call dibs on its awesome chair babies."

"…But…that's physically impossible."

"Cloud! It's called a metaphor. You're supposed to laugh and grin at my literary genius! Gees…You're so serious and uptight! You need to let off some steam and just get laid or something…"

If it wasn't dark, Yuffie might have been able to see that the stone cold Cloud Strife just turned two shades redder. He could literally hear the alarm bells go berserk in his ears.

Get laid? Laid? With who? With her? Her as in Yuffie?

Yuffie wasn't wearing a bra. Did she know that she wasn't wearing one? Maybe he should tell her but if he did, then she would know that he was looking and she would label him as a pervert, which he definitely was not one! He was a man for god's sakes, and he was merely, like most heterosexual males, making factual observations.

Like her pants for instance. She was wearing pants, but they were so short, it was practically underwear. Maybe she thought that looking like that…was fashionable? Well he didn't know. He didn't care for trends and that sort of thing. But those legs…especially in the how the lights illuminated them in the dark…they were looking _dangerously_ sexy right now…

Why was he thinking such improper thoughts? It was dark, and it was the two of them only, since the soldier hiding behind the column had left.

This was ludicrous. Damn the intimate atmosphere the night and the lambent lamps had created! He could feel his breathing grow heavy. He needed to escape. It must be the blood loss from the battle at the coliseum making him delusional. Yes, the blood loss. Self control.

_Self control. _

This was Yuffie! Yuffie! How old was she? Judging by her body, _old enough! _

_Self control. _

It wasn't his fault for thinking like that.

_Self control._

She was the one who had suggested that he needed to get laid.

_Self control. _

She was the one not wearing a bra. She took off his shirt. She was wearing shorts that were waaaaay too short.

_Self control_.

Didn't she go to his room, alone, after he came out of the shower the other time?

_Self_–

"…So we should hurry and get back to Tranverse Town…"Hearing her voice, made him suddenly stop what he was just about to do, as he recovered his self control, forcing himself to step away from her. He really needed to get away, far away from her, at least so that he could clear his thoughts. "… So you and Aerith can go at it like rabbits."

_Aerith?_ The blonde man's thoughts immediately evaporated, as he didn't really pay attention to the rest of what Yuffie was saying. All he could hear was the name Aerith, and how the name brought such peace to him. Aerith, the girl who loved white lilies. The girl with the long brown flowing curls, beautiful emerald eyes…

"I mean how long has it been since you last seen her? That's like nine years of sex you gotta make up to her?" Yuffie joked, completely oblivious to what the blonde had just two seconds ago, contemplated doing to her. The kleptomaniac however was sure that the blonde had been smiling, even if it was the slightest, after mentioning Aerith's name.

"…Tranverse Town?" He hadn't really seriously thought about the place much. He didn't think he would return so soon, so quickly. He was unprepared. How could he face Aerith?

"Yeah. You lost the bet buddy. I'm draggin' your ass back with me first thing tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? You didn't tell me-"

"Yeah, I already booked the transport. Sorry about the late notice, I was planning to tell you when I went to visit you at hospital but-"

"You never visited me…"

_That's because I heard you were talking to Yue about how you let me win. _"Well…er…Rikku! Yes Rikku, she called me and I was like, I really need to see Cloud, cos I don't want you to feel too bad about losing to me, but she was like, you gotta come, and you know how Rikku is, so she led me away and I was preoccupied with celebrating my victory." Yuffie lied, making a weak smile.

"I don't wanna hear you brag right now," his eyes stared at the white wall, averting her gaze.

"Damn, there goes that plan. But it's okay. We have plenty time for me to do that on our trip back to Tranverse Town," Yuffie grinned frivolously.

Cloud groaned in response. Perhaps not at being with Yuffie, but at seeing Tranverse Town. It had been a long time since he was back, he wasn't sure what to feel, how to react. "I'll go pack my things then." He turned to walk away, but rather just to clear his head and think what to do.

"That'll take like, 20 seconds with the limited number of things you have."

"How do you- _Yuffie!" _He glared at her menacingly. "Did you look through my things?"

"Heh…nooo…" He looked at her lying face skeptically.

Cloud didn't have time to be angry at her. He honestly didn't really care much about it. "Whatever, I'm gonna take a walk…by _myself_…" Cloud trailed off, turning on his heel, clearly indicating that he wanted some time alone to brood.

Meanwhile Yuffie stood there in the dark, as she fiddled with her fingers, having something in her brain eat her away. After mentally debating with herself, she finally took a deep breath, before she called out to him, "wait!"

He stopped dead in his tracks, turning his head back to acknowledge her.

She knew what he did for her. She knew that he had sacrificed his deal with Hades, so that she could fulfil her own with Aerith and Leon. "I…I… wanted to say…" The black haired girl hesitated, knowing it was hard to swallow her pride. "…Thank you," she responded shyly.

His brow arched slightly, but he didn't dare to turn to face her. "For what?"

For purposely losing to her in the tournament.

For not killing her when he could.

For protecting her when Yue nearly sliced her.

For putting up with her antics.

For lending her, well, letting her steal his chair.

For catching her when she jumped off the mountain just so she could see him carry her with his wing.

For actually paying attention to her (most of the time).

"For coming to Tranverse Town with me…" The raven haired girl replied with a smile, silencing her inner gratitude towards him. "To see Aerith of course..." She quickly added at the end. _Yes, it was for Aerith. The beautiful Aerith. _

It wasn't as if Yuffie didn't notice how Cloud unconsciously became less tense, his muscles relaxing just by the mention of her name.

"No need to thank me, It's not like I'm going there _willingly_."

Her lips parted slightly, as if wanting to say something but stopped. "…Yeah…It's not like you did it for me hah…" She murmured incomprehensively, laughing to herself, and she didn't understand why her eyes started to water slightly, why a sudden rush of sadness swept over her. Was it from the thoughts that she finally was going to accomplish her over three year mission?

The ninja knew that that wasn't the real reason, but she pushed the thought away as she quickly regained her composure, forcing a wide smile on her face. "I…erm…_Aerith _would…she would really appreciate what you're doing." She kept nodding, as if she was trying to ascertain herself instead.

"It has been a while…" His eyes stared out into the distance, as he took another step, beginning to walk away. She didn't like how he was thinking of Aerith with a sort of dazed look on his face. The kleptomaniac wanted him to look at her properly, instead of some fleeting glance. She wanted to gain his attention, aside from when she sought it, by stealing his cape. Well, she supposed it was a good thing that he was finally thinking about that brunette girl, compared to when he barely recalled Aerith. But despite how selfish it sounded, Yuffie found it was unfair! Unfair…because…

Because…it just was!

Yuffie was the one who spent more than 3 years searching for him, the least he could do, was…show some sort of appreciation! At least…some form of attention…Why was he always blowing her off like that?!

_Quick! Get his attention before he goes away! Do something! Say something!_

_Anything!_

"So what do you think about the recent financial crisis?" The ninja randomly asked out of the blue.

_What._

_The._

_Hell?_

Who the hell says that? Yuffie did, that's who! Gawsh, she was _great _at ice breakers. She hoped that Cloud didn't know anything about it either, because she had just recalled it somewhere from a headline she read on some newspaper back in Agrabah.

"Not much." Oh good Cloud. Good answer. Phew.

"Well…I er…Kicked your ass in the tournament! Yaiya!" Okay, so it felt wrong to boast, when she knew that he had intentionally lost to her for a good reason. It was sooo wrong but watching the stoic man cringe was kinda fun and liberating. "How's it feel to get your ass served ninja-style!? Boo-yah!"

Oh yeah, she was so determined to make him run away in tears!

He only stood there for only two seconds, unaffected by the girl's banter, as he casually replied, "Yuffie…did you know that… you're not wearing a bra."

Before the raven haired girl looked down to confirm that Cloud was in fact correct, she was stunned at the fact that Cloud actually knew what a bra was.

With a smirk on his face, Cloud walked away knowing he had made her speechless, and ironically, Yuffie was the one who ran into her room, slamming the door behind her, flustering red.

She knocked her head back and forth against the surface of her door, knowing that she shouldn't have answered that door, and stayed in that wonderfully comfortable bed of hers. But nooo…she was greedy, and thought maybe she would be lucky, and maybe someone might be kind enough to deliver her complimentary breakfast during the night.

Well since her bed was right there, maybe she could sleep the embarrassment away. After all tomorrow was going to be a new day, a day when she would set out for her trip back to Tranverse Town after 3 long years. Her mission was going to be finally over, and everyone in Tranverse Town would talk about how great she was, and they would then tell other people, and those other people would tell other people, and the great Yuffie Kisaragi would be granted what she truly deserved! No longer would she have to live hungry and in poverty. People would be congratulating her, telling her how great she was, and offering her…wait for it… Free food!

Yes, tomorrow was going to be a good day, where she could forget what had occurred just a few seconds ago.

Until she realised something…

She was returning back to Tranverse Town with Cloud, as in the guy who caused the said embarrassment.

Judging by the bleak look on her face, it was easy to tell that Yuffie was not looking forward to tomorrow at all.

-------**x o **x**--------**

**T****o be Continued.**

**a/n**- Around 6880 words

I'm sorry about how the chapter before were snapshots, more like little drabbles, and ruined the flow. But that was _literally _the only thing that I came out of my brain. Today is the last day of my holidays (hoo-rah –note the sarcasm)

Anyway in regards to this chapter, Cloud may be a little ooc, with his 'horniness', sorry if you think he is. It's been a while since I wrote…_anything. _I also, haven't edited this (so I could post this quickly), so if you spot errors, feel free to tell me. I also realise this chapter moved rather slowly, but it's a follow-up to what's going to happen in the next chapter.

Anyway, I said that this would end soon…perhaps 2 more chapters (I hope…) Haha, hopefully I can actually _finish _a chaptered story. But yeah, I have a bit of the next chapter written (it was supposed to be put at the end of this chapter but I felt it was too long, so I cut it). Any suggestions you'd like to suggest?

PREVIEW FOR NEXT CHAPTER: More CLOUFFINESS to come.

SPECIAL THANK YOU TO THE REVIEWERS, WHO ENCOURAGED ME WITH THEIR KIND REVIEWS, DESPITE MY LACK OF UPDATING.

LOVE YOU.

**Please Review.**

Disclaimer- same as before.


	16. Chapter 15: with you

**My Search for You**

By kaikai pants

**A/N**- 5 july 2010. BOOYAH! _Finally_ updated, after ages, literally AGES (more like 11 months, that's like a year). Inspired by TheDayDreaming (she writes excellent Clouffie stories, you should check them out), to update!

I haven't written anything for ages, so please bear with me.

-**x o **x**-**

**Chapter fifteen:** With you

-**x o **x**-**

Today was a very momentous occasion for Yuffie Kisaragi.

Not only was it the day that the valiant ninja was officially released from her status of: Mt Olympus prisoner, it was the day that she was finally leaving the world of Mt Olympus and making her journey back to her hometown of Tranverse Town. However unlike her initial journey to Mt Olympus, the brave warrior of the ninjutsu arts wasn't doing her trip back alone.

After a long (three years, two months, three weeks, one day to be precise) struggle from the day of receiving orders (they weren't technically 'orders', but Yuffie liked to think they were) from Squall Leonhart, the noble ninja Yuffie Kisaragi had found and acquired her target, Cloud Strife.

The hard part of her quest was already completed.

Now to finish her mission off, all she had to do was bring him _back_…

It sounded easy enough since things _should_ have been running smooth for the said ninja when Cloud lost the bet, and fortunately for her, he was a man of his words and thereby would consensually follow her back to their hometown of Tranverse Town…

But since when did things run smoothly for Yuffie Kisaragi..?

Never.

"**What. Is. This?"**

Those were the words uttered from the mouth of the enigmatic Cloud Strife, as he narrowed his eyes into the direction of everyone's 'favourite' ninja, or in his eyes, everyone's most _loathed_ person in the world.

In response, she merely looked at him ludicrously, as if he had asked a stupid question, which she seemed to think everyone did when doubting her forms of actions. "_Duh_! It's our transport back." She replied, rolling her eyes.

It was a lovely morning, the sun was high, the birds were chirping and things _were_ looking bright (note, the word "WERE"). Cloud and Yuffie had already packed their belongings, bid their farewells to Roxas and Rikku, and had departed from the Coliseum, ready for their journey back to Tranverse Town. Despite the weather being perfect, the blonde swordsman however did not share such a chirpy mood. He stood there grim-faced, his facial expression clearly revealing that he was already beginning to regret losing to Yuffie on purpose and agreeing to this whole ordeal. He knew he was in for in, and there was no way out.

"Ta daa!" The vivacious girl announced, noticing her company's extreme lack of enthusiasm, arms hollering as if she were a salesman showcasing a car. Seeing his eyes narrow even more, Yuffie let out a huff as she folded her arms. "Oh c'mon emobutt! Show some excitement! Isn't it cool?"

"It's… a horse carriage…" He deadpanned. And Cloud was right. A simple wooden carriage, attached to a brown horse with a sable-coloured mane stood at the foot of the pathway. The driver lazily perched at the front of the carriage seemed not to care what his two clients were bickering about, as he lowered his cap and languidly breathed in his cigarette and then released a whiff of smoke.

"Erm yeah. So?" She blinked innocently.

"It's. A. **Horse Carriage**…" Cloud bitterly repeated with more emphasis, irritation growing with every inch of her gall to even be oblivious at the situation.

"Yeeeah, I know. You said that the first time. I'm not deaf!"

_You're stupid but, _he internally scathed and decided not to say his thoughts out loud for the safety of his life. He remembered very _clearly _that she never hesitated to toss a lethal ninja star at his vital organs. He didn't know how someone could be so crafty, yet be so _dense _at the same time. Taking a deep breath, he knew that Yue was right. Cloud would need a huge, no voluminous mountain-size amount of tolerance to survive, _no,_ to _prevent_ him from reaching for his buster sword and slicing her into ninja chow mien.

"Don't we need…I dunno…**a gummi ship**, to get to Tranverse Town," he seethed, his tone full of indignation. Tranverse Town was a world that was very far away from where they were presently. In other words, travelling by horse carriage was just preposterous! Plus he didn't think he had the endurance to be stuck with Yuffie for such a long time in a closed confined space.

"I'm not stupid Cloud. I _have _thought about that, the faster the trip back, the faster I can get this over and done with. You aren't exactly Mr-Enjoyable-Company either! Sheeesh!" She retorted, flaring up at his accusing tone.

"So Miss I'm-Not-Stupid," he began, voice drenched in sarcasm. "What is this reason that wearen't travelling via gummi ship?"

"Remember the reason why I got put into the Coliseum in the first place? Stole food from a guy. Kinda have no money, from I dunno, perhaps wasting three years, two months, three weeks of my life searching for some half chocobo vampire guy! So suck it up bitch!" She poked her tongue out, chin held high as she turned her back on him in infuriation.

Cloud let out a sigh; it was going to be a very long day, and perhaps an even _longer_ journey back to Tranverse Town. "I knew relying on you to arrange transport for us, was too much of a task for you."

"Oh c'mon! This transport has its plus sides! Look over there! Look how cute the horse is!" She said in a convincing tone, grinning widely, whilst she stroked the horse's hair and giving it a pat on the head in an affectionate manner. Cloud's facial expression on the other hand, only seemed to grow sourer. "Ah shit, you don't like him do you? Damnit I knew I should have got the cooler looking horse."

"The horse has nothing to do with it Yuffie," he rolled his eyes. "I just can't believe you got us a horse carriage."

"Hey! It's a completely reliable form of transportation thank you very much!" She scowled defensively.

"It will take us _**years**_to reach Tranverse Town. Reliable but _completely_ inefficient."

"Well…Mister unappreciative-of-horses-and-reliable-transportation…What should we do _huh_?" She spat back, getting irate.

"Well let's see…How about getting tickets for a flight to Tranverse Town?" He replied bluntly in a matter-of-factly tone. She hated the idea of having to go there by gummi ship. The thought made her feel queasy but it got the whole job done much quicker.

"Okay then _wiiise_ guy…with _what_ money?" The ninja looked up at him sceptically, hands on her hips.

"Er…_My_ money."

.

.

.

"Say what?" She did not expect him to answer her intended _rhetorical _question. Furthermore to add to her astonishment, she had not even expected the answer that just came out of his mouth. "You have MONEY…and you did not _tell _me!" She seethed in between slow furious breaths, looking like a volcano about to erupt. Twice.

"Unlike you…" He nonchalantly began, dismissing her fiery fumes. "…I entered the coliseum to fight as a gladiator as a volunteer."

"Stop paying me out that I was a criminal! What's your point?" She snapped quickly, interrupting him, wanting to hang Cloud off a pole and bat him silly with his buster sword like a piñata.

"Volunteers…get _**paid**__," _he replied with an undercurrent of half-smugness.

At that moment, Yuffie was blown away by all this information. She had always wondered how Cloud had managed to survive all this time and had never considered that his participation at the coliseum was actually…his job. She assumed judging by the rangy half-ripped crimson cloak that he always wore, that he didn't have enough money to buy a new one. But maybe…Cloud just lacked fashion sense, and didn't really care that he looked like a homeless bum.

Then the sudden epiphany hit her! Cloud had been working as a gladiator under Hades' orders for…how long? From what she knew of, he had definitely been working there for quite some time since word of his fights had spread to Agrabah [1], the first place where she first heard of a genuine rumour of his whereabouts in Mt Olympus. Plus the more dangerous a job was, the higher the risk, therefore that meant Cloud must have been paid _heaps! _And having money meant she could go buy candy. Lots and lots of candy!

"Holy! Cloud! Oh my god! You have money! You. Have. _Money_! Oh _glory_ to the world!" She chanted, skipping around him, her eyes filled with tears of joy; bliss filling her lungs, as she finished her victory dance by blowing kisses towards sky. It was too long since Yuffie had any form of cash, other than the ones she had purloined from people. Being a skilled ninja did come in handy! She could finally buy things…_legitimately_!

"…"

"If you told me we had money earlier, I wouldn't have pinche- er…nevermind. Cloud! Oh Cloud! Cloud my dear friend, best best bestest buddy Cloud!" She drew closer to him, swinging her arms around his shoulders, which caused him to flinch. "You…are…great! Not as awesome as me though, but you're preeeetty close and that's already an achievement."

"Thanks Yuffie," the blonde sarcastically said, fighting the urge to push her off him. Seeing the raven haired girl's face still in some sort of glutinous trance, (seriously, she looked like she was on a high), he knew it was up to him to do take actions and arrange transport despite it being her task to get them to return to Tranverse Town in the first place. "We should head to the aerodrome."

"What?" She asked, snapping out of her stupor. "Oh yes, right! Let's go!"

"But first things first, tell the driver we don't need his horse carriage anymore."

"Er…yes we do…" Yuffie corrected, looking at the blonde as if he were a Neanderthal.

"Why? We can just carry our luggage. It's not that heavy."

"Er…yes it is."

The swordsman closed his eyes with a disappointed shake of his head. "If you're _that _lazy, I'll carry yours if you want."

"Um…I don't think you can chocobo-head. I mean, you're strong so sure you can, but it'll be a bit odd walking through Mt Olympus with..._yeah_."

"Whatever, where's your things?" He dismissing her, thinking she was being ludicrous again. It was already morning and he already wanted the day to be over, fast.

"At the back of the horse carriage," she replied, pointing to the black horse carriage. He followed her finger's line of direction, as he opened the back of the carriage and took a full glimpse and realized that Yuffie was definitely not over-exaggerating this time.

"You _actually _took the chair back with you!"

"Haha…yeeeeah…" She laughed nervously. He narrowed his eyes at her in disbelief. "What can I say? It's in love okay!"

-**x o **x**-**

After two hours or so (Cloud felt like it was so much more because Yuffie would _not _shut up), the dysfunctional duo rode down Mount Olympus and arrived with their luggage (and the chair that she purloined from Cloud's room) to the aerodrome in one piece. During their trip to the aerodrome, the blonde realised what Yue meant when her brother warned about 'Yuffie's neverending bragging'. It seriously, never ended. Never. And when she wasn't talking about how she whooped his ass (that Cloud knew was because he _let _her do such), she kept insisting she was forgetting to bring something since they were going to the aerodrome instead. Gawsh, she was paranoid. The essential items that they needed were their passport and identification. Plus, they were carrying the chair she persisted on bringing. There couldn't be anything that they were missing.

"Can I have two tickets to Tranverse Town?" Yuffie asked brightly at the counter, after Cloud was too lazy to argue that _he _should be the one doing the talking.

"Sure, so that's one adult and one _child_," the lady in the counter replied in her sales-assistant voice, punching in the details in the computer.

"Excuuuuuuuse me? Care to repeat that again?" The ninja heaved, eyes blazing with indignation, daring her to continue.

"One adult and one _child- no… "The_ strawberry blonde girl in the blue uniform behind the counter glanced at Cloud with a smile and then glanced at Yuffie, finally sensing the ninja's clear frustration. "Sorry, one adult and one student?_"_

"You motherfuck-"

Luckily for Cloud's quick thinking, the pair didn't get kicked out despite Yuffie threatening to sharpen her shuriken with the Aerodrome worker's head. It might have had something to do with Cloud giving the strawberry blonde worker his number after she asked, even though he didn't _own _a phone (why do you think tracking Cloud was so hard for Yuffie to do in the first place).

After purchasing two _adult _tickets _legitimately_, Cloud Strife surmised that he could finally get some rest! No drama could strike since all they had to do was peacefully enter a gummi ship, and wait the so hours until they reached their destination of Tranverse Town. With his exceptionally bad luck, Cloud expected there to be some sort of great mishap that would inhibit them from boarding the gummi ship. But to his fortune (what he later deemed as misfortune) the next available flight was in two hours and there were no such plane delays, terrible storms, insults to an easily provoked ninja to prevent them from boarding at all!

Thus, everything seemed to be going to Cloud's way, as the two did in fact board the gummi ship without any dilemmas. Hooray!

That was until the clever swordsman became cognizant that their real predicament would be _during _their flight to Tranverse Town…

He also realised that despite Yuffie's insistent ramblings in their earlier trip on the horse carriage about forgetting something had in fact turned out to be regrettably…_ very _true.

That said item that the ninja had forgotten to pack being a set of tranquilisers.

That said tranquilisers were for her airsickness.

That said airsickness causing him to see her empty the breakfast she had stolen from some random when she thought he didn't carry any money, AND see the once delectable dishes she ate for her victory dinner last night.

He suddenly wished that he didn't stop Yuffie from getting them both evicted from the aerodrome.

Not only did he have murderous thoughts about killing the ninja, and perhaps killing her brother Yue because if it weren't for him, she wouldn't have been alive because he carried her out of the burning city of Wutai; he additionally contemplated killing the heartless for attacking the said village, because if it weren't for them, then he probably wouldn't have to meet Yuffie and wouldn't be on this stupid gummi ship with her yakking out her insides right next to him.

But more importantly so, he wanted to kill her, because she was the reason why he got onto this gummi ship in the first place, because he realised he _too_, had airsickness.

Thus throughout the entire flight, both Cloud and Yuffie shared the same arduous pain as the gummi ship carried them throughout the worlds towards Tranverse Town.

Fuck, it was going to be joyous ride back to Tranverse Town.

-**x o **x**-**

Yuffie had always pictured the day she brought Cloud home to Tranverse Town to be one of the most joyous events of her life! She imagined a spray of confetti, a pop of champagne, she pictured herself kissing the ground, and then finishing the moment off with one of her signature victory poses!

Instead, once they reached their destination, Cloud and Yuffie looked as if they had been brutally knocked out and then resurrected by a dodgy spurious Phoenix Down imitation. There was certainly no confetti, her imaginary champagne was instead replaced with a bag of their puke. However she did kiss the ground because they had finally landed and were not flying in that dastardly airship anymore!

Being strong, it didn't take too long (it _felt _long though) for the two to recuperate and return to their normal vigour, as they picked themselves up and carried on towards the way back to Aerith's house.

Despite their horrific flight back home, it finally had settled in during their silent steps towards Aerith's. She was so close to completing her task that she could taste it on her lips (and also the cement, because she did kiss the ground and it didn't taste particularly appetising).

She recalled the days when she wanted to resign, and return back home empty-handed, but now thinking back, she just laughed at how silly she was. She definitely had no regrets!

Instead of being trapped in the restlessly boring Tranverse Town, she was out there exploring the worlds, meeting new people, fighting monsters! So what if there were times she was lying in the muddy ground, broke, hungry…

She was grateful for meeting Roxas, Rikku, her long lost brother Yue and even Commander Seifer … Because if it weren't for Commander Seifer for using his gunblade and capturing her, she probably would not have had a chance to reunite with…

…Cloud.

At the thought, the ninja stopped half way in her tracks, feeling the wind dance numbly through her hair. Unconsciously, she had just stopped metres away from the large Oak tree that stood at the entrance of Tranverse Town. Unaware of the other, it was the same oak tree that both Cloud and Yuffie had carved their names in just in case they wouldn't come back. However this time, there was no longer a garden of beautiful white lilies; only dirt remained. Cloud was too distracted by the familiar surroundings of the town he had left so many years ago to realise that she had ceased walking, as he continued on, reminiscing the sounds of the last gongs of the clock tower [2]all those years ago.

Yuffie watched him from behind; looking at him stroll off with his ragged red cloak, gravity defying golden strands and bandaged buster sword equipped on his back.

She remembered like it was yesterday.

She remembered betting all her money away on sea-horse races in Atlantis, then getting thrown out of the bar, and then getting annoyed as the rain woke her up from sleeping away her sorrows.

And coincidentally, it was raining now, however it was not as heavy, just a light drizzle, tiny droplets tickled her cheeks, as she smiled to herself. It wasn't raining as hard as it was those months ago, when the rain had woke her up to hear that random nameless man rant on about seeing a fight in the rings of Mt Olympus, with the exact description of the man that was walking in front of her.

If it weren't for that one tip, she wouldn't have went to Mt Olympus, climbing pillars, jumping from rooftops to rooftops, stalked a guy in a marketplace, and then watched that said guy escape by flying away [3].

She wouldn't have then felt depressed by Cloud escaping from her, and stolen food to compensate for it. She wouldn't have then got chased for it, beat up a few guards and then get captured by Commander Stick-up-his-ass (Seifer) and met Rikku in the truck that she was transported to the Colloseum.

She wouldn't have witnessed Cloud's first joke at 10 am, in the corridors of the west wing of the bed chambers.

She wouldn't have felt a slight tingle of happiness when she realised Cloud had visited her when she was hospitalised by nearly getting butchered by a titan in the qualifying rounds.

She wouldn't have jumped off Mt Olympus, just so that he could wrap his arms around her and save her because he had wings.

She wouldn't have stolen his red cape just to get a better look at his face.

She wouldn't have followed him around the colloseum just to get his attention.

She wouldn't have taken the chair from his room just so that she could have something of his.

She wouldn't have randomly showed up outside his door, so that she could be closer to him.

She wouldn't have hired a horse carriage …just so that their return trip to Tranverse Town would be longer…

She gasped quietly to herself, as the unexpressed whispers of truth made her clench her fists and bite her lip.

She pretended not to understand what her thoughts meant, she didn't _want_ to understand!

What was happening to her? She felt like breaking down on her knees and crying.

She didn't know why she felt slightly down that they were finally going to return to Tranverse Town. Shouldn't she be excited, relieved that after 3 years 2 months, and 3 weeks and 1 day that her journey was coming to an end? Shouldn't she be happy that she was returning to her hometown of Tranverse Town! Shouldn't she be utterly happy that she was going to make Aerith happy? The beautiful brunette was the reason why the gray-eyed girl went on this journey in the first place.

Yuffie was going to reunite Aerith and Cloud back together, and the pair would live happily ever after…

And Yuffie would look at their backs from afar… A man with gravity defying blonde locks with his beloved lady with brown hair dressed in pink silk.

Wasn't this what she had always wanted?

Wasn't this the reason for her search for Cloud in the first place?

"Yuffie… are you coming?" He asked turning to face her; unsure why he didn't notice how she could lag so far behind.

"Um…" She hiccupped, shoulders slightly slumped. "I think I left the chair behind at the aerodrome. Come let's go get it!"

"There's no need, we were getting them delivered via truck, remember?" The blonde simply replied, unknowingly smashing her lie apart.

"Oh! Maybe the tranquilisers! Yes I left those behin-"

"We don't need them."

"YY-Y-ES WE DO!" She stammered sharply.

"Don't be stupid, we don't. Hurry up, or I'll leave you behind…"

He didn't mean to, but the last four words had struck a cord, as she could no longer conceal her saddened countenance.

"What are you waiting for?" He asked again, with increasing impatience.

'_Don't go…' _Unable to utter the words she wanted to say, Yuffie nimbly looked up, unblinking gray eyes staring deep into the sky. The sky was cloudless, the empyreal blue stretching out into the distance and it always amazed her how vast and majestic it was. Seeing the flawless weather, her fingers brush her moist cheeks. Her mouth was slightly left agape when she became aware that it has not been raining at all and that the droplets had been her own.

Ninjas don't cry! So why was she crying? Were they tears of joy? Tears of sadness?

Yuffie did this for Aerith didn't she? What would be the point if asked Cloud not to go see her? It would be so selfish of her wouldn't it? She should be supportive of Cloud and Aerith's reuniting, that was what she wanted right?

"It's okay. You go on! I'll just stay here! I have unfinished things to do!" Yuffie hastily quipped; forcing a smile on her face, as she quickly wiped the tears from her eyes. She started laughing, as she twisted around on one foot, afraid to look at him, look at his blazing blue orbs, for he might notice that she was crying.

"I have unfinished things also, but I'm still here," he pointed out bluntly. It was true; he had halted his mission to find Sephiroth and he didn't understand why she was now evincing hesitance. Normally it was Yuffie that was the one dragging him places, he felt confused and uncomfortable now that the roles had switched. Didn't he find it annoying being hauled and followed around by her? Shouldn't this moment of her sudden yet demure state in Yuffie, be soothing to him?

"Because you lost the bet! You, you don't want to be here!" The raven-haired girl snapped loudly, unsure why she was getting angry when she knew that he had lost on purpose. Why was she swarmed with all these emotions of sadness? Why did she feel like running away?

Her words slammed into his mind hard. He was not a person great at social interactions, but he could tell there was something she was not telling him. He was intrigued by it but he was not the type to press it further.

He moved towards her, making stern steps along the cobblestone pathway, each crunch along the rocks reverberating loudly in her ears, making her heart beat faster, harder, stronger. "The bet stipulated that I had to return to Tranverse Town _with__ you…_" he trailed off, feigning indifference. "Did it not?"

_With me? _The words circled around her head."Did it? I don't really recall the terms…"

"But I do."He sternly said, causing her to remain speechless, her head caught by his words.

"Yuffie…" The way he called her name, made her turn to face him, his mako-enhanced blue eyes framed by dark lashes fixated deeply at her.  
"Let's go…" He stretched his hand out, as she fragilely looked up at him, grey eyes big and wanting.  
"…_Together_." With a weak nod, she reached out and gently joined his hand.

For some reason, her previous fears and uncertainties of returning to Tranverse Town were temporarily washed away, as they both silently treaded along the cobblestone pathway towards the home that they grew up in, backs facing the figure of the giant oak tree.

-**x o **x**-**

**To be continued.**

Around 4200 words

[1] – Agrabah. Refer to Chapter 14, where she first heard the rumour of Cloud's whereabouts.

[2] Refer to Chapter 14- the snapshot where little Cloud and little Yuffie first leave Tranverse Town on their personal missions!

[3]- Chapter 2, where Yuffie corners him on the rooftop but he uses his demon wing to fly away.

**A/N- **I'm not sure if anyone still reads this, but I've decided to update! Because simply, this story is nearly over… one more chapter (I think) to go! I'm excited! It'll be my first story ever done! And it took me over 3 years (since 2006) to do lol! Hopefully I have more time to update at the end of this month since my exams are over.

Anyway, if you reread the previous chapters, there's heaps of references to the past chapters and this chapter sort of ties in everything together. I hope you liked this chapter!

PREVIEW FOR NEXT CHAPTER: Aerith comes into the EQUATION! DUM DI DUM!

SPECIAL THANK YOU TO THE REVIEWERS of the last chapter: Anna-Sky Valentine Nox, MystiKoorime, always-kh, kangelheart, md, SecretAgent99, City of Dis, Oo Fiction Fan oO, LM22102 & Filipina Shortaay. I really appreciate your support despite my lack of updating.

**Please Review! If you spot any errors please feel free to tell me!**

Disclaimer- same as before.


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